Thru New Eyes
by Twlightborn1983
Summary: Secrets come to light as Lilith returns to Earth to enact her revenge. She brings with her a plot for even greater sorrows, and only when certain fears are overcome, will there be any chance to end the nightmare forever.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone. I've had a bad case of writer's block, (I don't seem to be too good at fluff.) I've decided that the best solution would be to post the first chapter on the web. Now I haven't finished the rest of the story yet, so chapters will be a LOT longer in coming, but this means you can send me ideas and I might be able to fit them into the story. (As it is, I have 628's story completed, but I have almost nothing on Lilo and Stitch's relationship, and that where I need help). Well enough with my ranting, on with the story.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 1

New Eyes Born

It had been 5 months since the defeat of the monster known as Lilith. She was the result of a revenge attempt gone horribly wrong: Angel, having been left by Stitch when he finally figured out who he truly loved, turned her rage against Stitch's true love, Lilo. She attempted to use her evil song to turn Lilo evil and get her in trouble. Unfortunately, it backfired horribly, and the events that followed nearly destroyed Stitch's family, as well as the entire world.

Since then, things have once again gotten better for Lilo and Stitch, in fact, better than they were before. They were finally able to tell each other their feelings, and now have a wonderful love that seems impossible for their age. But what in their lives has ever been anything less than a miracle?

Stitch was given the ability to become human which allows him to be able to have a semi-normal life with his girlfriend and has started school with his human identity, Chris Strikerson. In the process he gained the friendship of three boys: Jason, Knuckles, and Richie, and together the four have caused more trouble in 5 months than most students manage to pull off in their entire school careers, much to the dismay of the teachers, the principal, and Lilo. Of course, with Stitch's training, Jason's daring, Knuckles technical expertise, and Richie's strange kind of luck, the four have been very successful in not getting kicked out of school yet. Mostly cause there is never any evidence.

Which leads us to today, and the four's most daring scheme yet is in the works.

"Get that thing away from the house!" Nani screamed from the front door at the two boys standing outside the house.

Jason and Knuckles were holding a large plastic tube that looked like it had been converted into a bazooka, which in their case, that's what it was. Sort of.

"It was only a tree!" Jason yelled back.

"We were aiming for Pleakly." Knuckles muttered.

"I don't care, you could knock a hole in the house with that!" Nani screamed. "Stitch, get down here so you and your friends can get out of here and out of my hair!"

Stitch ran out the back door and out to his waiting friends, also noticing the cracked tree covered in paint. He ran to greet his friends. "Sorry, overslept." he said as he ran up to the pair. "But isn't the gun suppose to just cover people in paint, and not kill them?" he said as he pointed to the tree.

"Uh yeah, Knuckles had it set too high, sorry about that." Jason said with his hand behind his head.

"I told you that it wasn't supposed to be fired this close." Knuckles said as he took a screwdriver to the mechanism in the back of the tube.

"Ok, I won't fire it at Myrtle's head, at least while there are witnesses." Jason said as he hefted the make-shift paintball cannon into the wagon. "Are you sure you can pull this Stitch? I mean it is pretty heavy."

"No problem, now let's go before Nani figures out what this is really for." Stitch said as he hopped on his bike.

"You mean before Lilo sees it." Knuckles said as he mounted his bike as well.

"Yeah, don't need your wife to go off on us again. So let's move!" Jason said as he jumped on his bike and took off.

"She's not my wife!" Stitch yelled as he took off after them.

"That funny, I could have sworn that the wedding was just last week." Jason yelled back.

"Shut up Jason or I'll make you." Stitch said, clearly starting to get embarrassed.

"Calm down both you. We need to focus on the task at hand." Knuckles said as the three rode along to the school grounds.

"Right, Operation: Splash Down!" Jason said enthusiastically.

"So are the other two cannons set up yet?" Stitch asked as they past the sandwich shop.

"Yeah, Richie's bringing the rest of the ammo to the launch point as we speak." Jason said as he charged up the hill.

"If my calculations are correct, the cannons will blast the paintballs at a trajectory that will cause them to fly over the school and land in the front lawn of the school yard within a 10 foot error radius." Knuckles said as the trio headed onward to the meeting spot.

"This is gonna rock so hard! I mean, no one in school history has ever pranked the entire school board before!" Jason said as he picked up speed.

"Oh yeah." was all Stitch replied.

Meanwhile, 625 had noticed over the counter at the sandwich shop his cousin zooming by, headed toward the school. Something he would never do on a Saturday, unless he and his buddies were planning something again. "Hey Angel, guess who I just saw go by, looking for trouble?"

"Let me guess. That I'd better call Lilo and tell her that her bugee-boo is trying to get himself expelled again?" Angel said, looking up from her menu.

"You got it Angelcakes. Now, what can I get you?" he asked.

"Same as always, Ham on rye. Hold the lettuce, extra mustard." Angel said as she reached for her cell phone. (Guess what 625 does with his paychecks?)

"You got it." 625 said as he went to work.

The phone rang, and Pleakly answered it. "Hello, Peliaki residence, Pleakly speaking. Oh yeah, I'll get her up, hold on."

He put down the phone and went upstairs to the lift tube. "Lilo, phone!"

Lilo rolled over and looked at the clock. "11:00. Looks like I slept in again."

She then heard Pleakly telling her that she had a phone call. It was probably Victoria, wanting to know if they were going to go to the beach today. She picked up the phone, and answered groggily "Hello."

"Guess where Stitch is?" the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Angel?" Lilo said as she got out of bed. Then what Angel said clicked in her sleepy brain, and she woke right up. "Not again! Where did you see him go Angel?"

"He just passed the sandwich shop about 5 minutes ago. I think he was headed for the school."

Lilo sighed. "If he's headed toward school on a Saturday, then he and Jason are up to something. Thanks Angel, I'll take care of it."

"Ok, but you better hurry, cause I bet they won't stay put long, their never do when up to something."

"I know, I know. See ya." Lilo said as she hung up the phone. She jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed. She hopped into the lift and headed downstairs. She shot past Jumba and Pleakly as she ran to the door.

She blurted out "SorrygottagoStitchistryingtocausetroubleagainbye!"

She ran outside to see the tree. "Oh great. I don't even wanna know." She realized that whatever those guys had planned, it was either big or dangerous. Probably both. "I never find them in time from the ground, so I guess I better go airborne." Lilo said as a bright light surrounded her. The light shrunk and disappeared, leaving the light blue experiment everyone had come to call Sora. She charged her wings and took to the sky.

Meanwhile, the 3 boys had arrived at the meeting spot, a wooden grove just beyond the school. There the 4th boy, Richie, had been waiting for them. "It was about time you 3 got here, I was getting worried."

"Why Richie? It's all coming together. I told you not to worry about it." Jason said as he hopped of his bike. He noticed the wagon that had been tied to Richie's moped. "Nice, that paint outta be enough to cover the entire schoolyard."

"Yeah Richie, only your mom would have 8 buckets of watercolor paint. What does she do with it?" Knuckles asked.

"She does paintings with it." Richie said as he started to pull out the paint bucket.

"I'd like to see the brush." Stitch said as he unloaded the cannon and set it on the ground.

"She doesn't use one. She uses her hands." Richie said as he put the can down.

"She what?" Jason said, mouth open.

"She finger paints?" Stitch asked, surprised. He knew Myrtle's mom was a bit of a space case, but this was ridiculous. "You're kidding."

"No, and it's not finger painting. It's called 'expressive' art." Richie said standing up for his mom.

"Listen, we don't have time for this, Richie, you stand watch, me and Knuckles will get the cannons ready, and Stitch can work ammo detail, ok everyone?" Jason said, knowing that they were on a deadline. They had to finish this today, and without anyone seeing them.

"Right." Richie said as he took off for the edge of the clearing.

"Okay." Stitch said as he grabbed a paint bucket.

"Alright, let's do this!" Jason said in his usual spirited tone.

Jumba just sat on the couch after he saw Lilo take off at break-neck speed. "Am seeing that 626 is causing mischief once again. Am very proud." he said as he saw Pleakly enter the room.

"Well I'm not! He's just trying to get kicked out of school. And poor Lilo, he doesn't listen to her at all." Pleakly said as he set down the laundry. "She wants to marry him so badly, but she can't if he loses his identity because he gets kicked out of school!"

"626 will not be getting kicked out of school, is expert at avoiding detection. And is just having fun anyway. Am agreeing with brown-haired boy, little girl is becoming control freak." Jumba said as he started flipping channels.

"That Jason is nothing but trouble! Did you see what he did to the tree outside?" Pleakly said as he started folding clothes. "And I think he and his other friend were trying to hit me with it!"

"Wish they would have been hitting original target." Jumba said as he turned off the TV, bored and tired of Pleakly's ranting.

"Well I'm tired of their pranks! They are mean and just not nice." Pleakly continued to rant. Then Jumba cut him off.

"Yes, yes am knowing you are still upset about the itching powder, put don't you have somewhere to be going today?"

"Oh no! I almost forgot. Today is the white sale at the mall! I have to hurry before they are all cleared out." Pleakly said, dropping what he was doing.

"Yes, can never have too many fluffy towels." Jumba remarked sarcastically as he got up.

"You know it!" Pleakly said as he ran out the door. "See you tonight!"

Jumba smiled as he realized what this meant. "626 is out doing prank with friends, little girl has gone to stop them, bigger girl is at work, and Pleakly is being shopping, I think now is being good as time as any."

Jumba entered the ship, humming to himself. He'd been waiting for this chance for quite a while, and now everyone was out of the house for a long enough period for him to finish his greatest work. He walked into his lab and pulled out a small box. "It is time little one, time for you to be meeting world for first time."

He opened the box to reveal a small, dark blue pod. He removed the pod and set it down on the ground. He then reached over and grabbed a small dropper filled with water. He knelt down and positioned the dropper over the pod, and squeezed the contents of the dropper onto it.

The pod was covered in electric-like light that expanded until a flash. When the flash cleared, the pod was gone. In its place stood an experiment. The night-blue experiment was about the same size as Stitch, but it resembled 627 in terms of body type, only with a head that was less pointed and slightly wider on both the sides and the back. Its chest fur was white, and it had only one defining feature: a small red crystal-like horn, about 3 inches long, jutting from its forehead. It had no spines, no antenna, and its claws were the same crystalline as its horn, but rather small. The creature stood up and opened it's black eyes for the first time, slowly, and just stared. Then it slowly began to adjust its head, taking in its surroundings, until its eyes met the form of Jumba.

"Are you my creator?" the small creature asked as it looked up at him.

"Yes, I am Jumba Jukeba. I am your creator." Jumba replied.

"And I am 628? Correct?" the creature asked as it turned to scan it's surroundings once more.

"You are being correct once more." Jumba replied as he watched his creation analyze his surroundings.

The creature began to explore the room, looking at different objects, picking some up, but then placing them back once more. Then it returned it's gaze to Jumba. "How do I know what these things are, if I have never seen them before?"

"Because you are being programmed with the knowledge of what they are. In fact, you are programmed with all my scientific knowledge, as well as other basic skills." Jumba said as he sized up his creature's reactions to his surroundings. _He is very curious, is just as programmed. Will one day be able to assist me in evil genius experimenting. As well as being able to act on own without guidance._

"What basic skills? Are they of any importance?" 628 asked as it began to explore the rest of the ship.

"Skills such as language program and basic social skills." Jumba said as he followed 628. "Nothing in relation to purpose."

628 stopped. It turned back to Jumba. "My purpose is to assist in your work, correct?"

"Yes, yes it is. But will one day expect you to be working on own." Jumba said as he patted 628 on the head.

"How will I do that? Which of my properties assists in this?" 628 said as he started to explore once again.

"Aah, is simple. Your computer brain will do this."

"But 624 thru 627 also possess this ability, why was I created for this purpose?" 628 said as he examined the ship's controls.

"Indeed, other experiments possess this ability, but not corresponding programming. You are being programmed with intense curiosity, and have memory to back up fast thinking brain." Jumba said as he sat in the cockpit chair.

628 stood for a minute, going over his knowledge of the other experiments. He realized that they all had one or more evil purposes. But his program included none.

"Why am I different from my brethren? Why do I have no evil purpose?"

Jumba sighed. "Am afraid that I no longer have evil purpose either. Nor do most of other experiments, save maybe 627."

"Lilo?" 628 said as he climbed onto the panel of the ship and looked out the window.

"Yes, is having to do with little girl, but did not give my memories, so you would not be knowing why."

Indeed, 628 knew what Jumba knew, the names and faces of everyone he had ever met, up until the point his creation began, which was five years ago. He also knew that this information was probably outdated, since he knew instinctively the exact time and place he was at the present moment due to his advanced brain program. His programming did not extend, however, to Jumba's memories; he wanted 628 to create his own.

"What happened that caused your change of heart?" 628 said as he continued to stare out the window.

"Do not wish to go into that, is troubling. Besides, it doesn't matter." Jumba said, knowing that 628 was programmed to not push a question, he would simply re-ask when the matter came up again.

628 continued to stare outside the ship's windshield. Then he climbed down and started toward the door.

"Where are you going 628?" Jumba asked as he followed him.

"Outside. I wish to explore my surroundings and learn about the people I share this world with." 628 replied as he headed for the door.

Now Jumba figured this might happen. He knew 628's curiosity would lead him into the outside world, but he couldn't let 628 be seen by the wrong people. "Wait 628, you must be knowing what to watch out for outside"

628 turned to face Jumba. "I have your knowledge of this planet, and there are no dangers to me here. What must I watch out for? People who might recognize me as the 628th experiment?"

"Indeed, be waiting one moment, I will be fetching computer and pictures of those to be looking out for." Jumba said as he headed quickly back to the lab.

628 instead turned to the table in the corner, and picked up a photo. It was a picture of the family and friends on Lilo's last birthday. 628 turned the picture around and checked the date, knowing Jumba always dated and labeled his photos, no matter how trivial. "This photo will suffice. It has pictures of the family, and they are the only ones who know of the experiments existence. Correct?"

Jumba had just returned. "Why yes 628, is good thinking. But must point out which ones to be looking out for."

628 handed the photo to Jumba. "Then please do so. I wish to explore the island without causing retribution on you."

Jumba circled Lilo, Stitch, and Cobra in the photo and handed it back to 628. "Be on look out for these 3 most of all, for will immediately recognize you as new experiment. Others in photo might, but is unlikely as long as you are not drawing attention to self."

628 looked over the photo and then placed it back on the table. Then he removed another photo, and showed it to Jumba. "Who is this? I do not recognize him, and yet his photo stands alone on your table."

It was Stitch's fall photo. He had managed stick his tongue out at the camera just before the shot was taken, and was in a t-shirt saying "Bite Me" on the front.

"Aah, is 626's human form. Is good you are reminding me, need to be on lookout for 626 in that form as well." Jumba said as he took the photo from 628 and patted him on the head.

"But according to my memories, 626 does not have metamorphic capabilities." 628 said as he got down from the table.

"Recent addition." was Jumba's reply. "At 626's request of course."

This puzzled 628. 626 had plenty of abilities, and advanced stealth training. Why did he need to be able to take other forms?

"Why did 626 request this?" 628 said as he looked at Jumba.

"Same reason 323 asked for hair, was being in love." Jumba replied as he placed his computer down on the table.

"That does not make sense. Why would 323 want hair because of love? Why would 626 want his new form? Neither is capable of mating yet. What is the point? What does it have to do with love?"

Jumba laughed. "I'm sometimes wondering myself. But you are confusing the emotion 'love' with the instinct 'lust'. Love is strong caring for another, while lust is the need to procreate."

628 tilted his head. "I am aware of this. But isn't one just a cover for the other in this case?"

Although 628 was following his programming exactly, it was starting to annoy Jumba. "Why not go ask source. Find 323. He maybe can explain it better." he said, hoping 628 would leave him to his work.

"I will do so. But what time should I be back to assist in your work?" 628 said, knowing that helping Jumba was the other half of his purpose.

"I do not require your assistance at the moment, you should go and explore island."

"Thank you Jumba. I will do so and return after dark, when I am less likely to be seen." 628 said as he took off.

Jumba just smiled as he went back into his lab. "Is very smart experiment, and very observant. But is being just a bit too inquisitive."

Sora (Lilo in experiment form) circled the school yard, looking for any signs of Stitch or one of his friends. "Now where could they be? Please don't tell me I'm too late." Then she spotted Richie leaving the forest behind the school. "Bingo."

Sora landed on the side of the building, as to not be seen by Richie. She retracted her wings, and transformed back into Lilo. She quickly ran to the corner of the building, and peered around it to the path. Richie was gone. "Probably went back to see if the others were finished." She knew Richie was a bit of a coward. Myrtle constantly harped about it, and it made Lilo feel sorry for him. Lilo tried to be his friend, but he would constantly try to avoid her. That was probably Myrtle's fault too. She could only imagine what things Myrtle said about her. Of course Richie probably knew they were lies, but he was too frightened of Myrtle. Myrtle had to be the worst sister on the face of the planet.

The truth was a bit different. Richie was indeed afraid of Myrtle, but he had his own fear of Lilo. He was afraid because he thought she was an alien. Which technically, she was. What made Richie afraid was what he thought would happen if she found out he knew. He had spied on her more than once when she was alone with Chris (Stitch in human form) and found out that she could take control of others, alter their memories, and fire beams of energy from her hands. And he was afraid that these powers would be turned on him if she found out he knew her secret. And he couldn't tell Jason or Knuckles, she would come after them too.

So when he saw her alien form flying around the school, he turned tail. He ran back to the others. To the only person who could protect him: Chris. He ran back into the launch point where the others had just finished installing the last cannon and setting up the ammo, which had taken them all of 5 minutes. By the time he had gotten there, Richie was out of breath.

"Whoa, what's up Richie? See a ghost again?" Jason said as he started to load the cannons.

"In broad daylight? I don't think so Jason. Even Richie doesn't spook that easily. More like we have company." Knuckles said as he started to cover the cannons.

"Who is it Richie? Principal Tanner? The cops? The Army?" Stitch said jokingly, but he also began to stash stuff into the bushes.

"Pant…Lilo." Richie said between breaths.

Stitch just slapped his hand to his forehead. _Yep, that's enough to make Richie run full speed. I have no idea why he is so scared of Lilo. I keep telling him how nice she really is and how big a liar his sister is. But he still seems frightened for some reason. Maybe he saw her transform? Naw… Lilo is way too careful for that to happen. And besides, then he would be scared of me too, since we are usually experiments at the same time._

"Oh boy, wife aggro. Men prepare for chewing out by annoying female." Jason said in his usual, smart tone.

"She isn't Stitch's wife Jason, just his girlfriend. I wish you would knock it off with that joke, it's old." Knuckles said as he hid the rest of the ammo.

"Yeah, but the way she acts you'd think she was. I mean she never lets Stitch do anything!" Jason said as they finished preparing for the unwelcome guest.

"That might be cause everything we do runs the risk of expulsion or worse." Knuckles said as he pushed the cannons behind a rock.

"Details, details. It's not like we ever get caught." Jason said as he leaned against the same rock.

Just then Lilo entered the clearing. She saw Jason leaned up against a rock, Knuckles standing next to Jason, Stitch over by a tree on the other side of the clearing, and Richie right behind him.

"So what brings you to our neck of the woods? Stitch got something he forgot to do, or is it just that you don't want him out of your sight unless you say so?" Jason said, smartly.

Of all Stitch's friends, Jason was the one Lilo liked the least. He was a wiseass and arrogant. He was also convinced that she was a control freak. Just because he had one bad experience with a girl, a mean one at that, didn't mean that he should think all girls were the same. "Jason, I'm going to tell you for the last time, the only reason I have to keep tabs on Stitch is because you keep trying to get him in trouble!" she said sternly as she looked around the clearing. She saw one of the cannons sticking out from behind the rock and frowned. "And I can see the cannon. You hid it behind the rock."

"Yeah, so. Why don't you just let Stitch do what he wants to do? I mean you're his girlfriend, not his master." Jason said, his voice becoming sterner as well. He was sick of Lilo trying to run Stitch's life. He obviously liked pranks, and Lilo should respect his decision. Jason used to think Lilo was the only cool girl on the island. Then she fell in love, and became like all the others: determined to control whatever hapless guy fell into her clutches.

"Listen, you can do whatever you want for all I care, but I don't want my boyfriend to get kicked out of school!" Lilo screamed.

"Well I think you should be more supportive of him! You used to be the coolest girl on the island, now look at you! You're as bad as Myrtle!" Jason screamed back at her.

Stitch could see that both of them were ready to fight, and he needed to keep that from happening. "Listen Jason, you guys can finish up, can't you? I need to go talk to Lilo and calm her down." he said as he took Lilo's hand. "Come on Lilo, you and me need to have a talk."

"Yes we do. And I don't think Richie or Alex should be here either, they actually have things going for them in school, unlike you Jason." Lilo said as Stitch tried to lead her away.

"What, not happy just controlling Stitch? You wanna control my other friends too? Whose next, me? Leave us alone." Jason said, becoming very angry.

"You stupid jerk!" Lilo screamed, tugging on Stitch's arm, trying to get free and get at Jason.

Meanwhile, Richie cringed away. _Jason, making a powerful alien mad isn't such a good idea._ Richie decided though that he would stay behind, he would rather be here and away from the possibly crazy alien than near her when she was mad at her boyfriend. "I think I will stay here with them, I don't want Myrtle to see me with you. She might destroy another one of my notebooks."

The name 'Myrtle' got Jason's attention off Lilo and on to Richie. "She did what? She destroyed your drawings? What did you do that made her mad this time, breathe funny?"

"No, she didn't like the pictures." Richie said, his head lowered.

Lilo then spoke up. "Of all the lame excuses. Richie, you can't let Myrtle push you around like that. She's just your sister, not your boss. You should just tell her to leave you alone."

"What do you care? You want to control us too." Jason said, remembering Lilo.

"I'm trying to keep you sorry butts out of trouble! You are going to get caught one day, Jason, so I'm trying to tell you to quit while you are ahead! The principal has it out for you, he knows you are behind this, he just hasn't been able to prove it yet. But one day he will, and then all four of you will be out on your ears, and I don't want that to happen. You may be a wiseguy Jason, but you're not mean. I don't want that to happen to Stitch or any of his friends, including you."

Knuckles then stepped forward between the two. "I think we have valid points on both sides. Jason in the fact that we haven't been caught yet, and the fact that Lilo, you have been a bit bossy lately, no offense."

"None taken."

"And Lilo has a point in that one day our luck might run out. Every prank we pull puts us one step closer to expulsion. And both of you agree on one thing."

"What's that?" Jason asked, curious as to what he and Lilo both actually agreed on.

"That Myrtle's a bossy jerk." Knuckles said with a smirk.

Jason gave a wide smile. "You're right, we do agree on that." Then he turned back to Lilo. "And I guess you're kinda right too. We have been a bit too bold lately. So after this last prank, which I promise will be evidence free, we will lay low for the rest of the year. Then next year, we will cool it a bit, and just focus on pranking the preps and of course, Myrtle."

Lilo smiled back. "That's better. I guess I need to stop being so bossy, I just want Stitch and me to go to school together. But I know he likes to play jokes sometimes. Heck, I used to."

"You still do. Remember the spider in Nani's lunch bag? I didn't do that." Stitch said as he put his arm on his girlfriend.

"No that was me. She grounded me for a week after that." Lilo said, giggling.

"So why do you get on to Stitch for his pranks then, isn't that being a…what's the word Knuckles?" Jason asked, not knowing the right word for the situation.

"Hypocrite." Knuckles replied, finishing his friend's sentence.

"Yeah, I guess I am being a bit of a hypocrite." Lilo said, looking down at the ground slightly. "But my little pranks aren't nearly as bad as the one you guys pull. I mean, I saw that tree back at the house."

"I told Jason not to fire the cannon at close range." Knuckles said under his breath.

"Yeah, don't worry about that." Jason said with his hand behind his head. "The cannons won't do anything but spread paint at their intended range."

"And what do you intend to do?" Lilo asked, more interested than annoyed now.

"You ever prank an entire school board before?" Jason said in a full grin.

"No, but I think I'm about to." Lilo responded. Now this was a surprise. Lilo was going to help them pull off a prank.

"Really Lilo, you are going to help us? Why?" Stitch said, turning back to face his girlfriend.

"Because you are my boyfriend, and we should do things together. Even get in trouble together. You know, like we used to." Lilo said as she leaned in to kiss him.

"That's the Lilo I fell in love with." Stitch said as he met her lips.

The other 3 watched this scene, each with different reactions.

Jason watched this scene with great happiness. _Man, those two really are hooked on each other. But I guess they still have their arguments, but they get over them . _He then thought about something somewhat sadder: _If only she could have, we might have worked out too._

Knuckles had a small smile on his face. _I can't believe it, but what Jason said at the beginning of school may actually be true. They may actually be in real love. Will wonders never cease? But as their friends, we need to make sure they can stay that way, and Stitch being kicked out won't help._

Richie at that moment had a realization. _I don't think it matters if Lilo is an alien or not. Stitch loves her, and that's what matters. But I wonder something: is it possible that Stitch might be an alien too? I mean, I know his guardian is, and Lilo used to have a 'dog' named Stitch, although they swear it's a coincidence. Nevertheless, the only way I will find out the truth is if I confront them, and I'm afraid of what they will do. NO, I shouldn't be afraid. Stitch is my friend, no, both of them are. They would never hurt me. But I will wait until the right time, like when one of them does something alien, then I will confront them. Yeah, that's what I will do._

Jason finally broke the silence. "Well Lilo, welcome to the team."

End Thru New Eyes Chapter 1

Next Chapter

What's In a Name?


	2. Chapter 2

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 2

What's in a Name?

628 had been looking for hours, but he was extremely patient. He had seen several other experiments, none of them batting even so much as an eyelash at him. Indeed there were so many experiments that 628 didn't stand out at all. Many of the experiments had never even met some of the others, so they just figured that he was one of the other 626 experiments. 628 climbed to the top of the lighthouse, where 323 was suppose to have been. He activated his long-range vision, which caused his eyes to glow yellow. He scanned the distance of the island, and finally found the experiment he had been searching for.

Sparky was outside the hair salon, waiting for his bugee-boo to get off work when he was approached by a dark blue experiment. Now Sparky wasn't the smartest of the experiments, but he knew that this experiment had a design that was possessed only by the highest numbered experiments, and he had already met all of them. Not to mention this experiment kinda looked like 627 with a smaller head and a horn. "Who are you?" he said as he looked the experiment over. It didn't have any features that would betray its function, so there was no telling what it could do.

"You are 323, correct?" 628 asked as he looked 323 over.

"Umm…yes. But my name is Sparky." Now Sparky was sure this was a new experiment, the other experiments all called each other by name, not number. But before either could say anything else, Clip stepped from inside the salon. She noticed the new experiment and looked him over.

"So this is 628." she said, surprising both male experiments.

628 turned to face the female experiment. "How do you know that is my designation? None save Jumba are suppose to know of my existence."

"Nosy told me. He said that Jumba was making a 628, he had caught him working on it in the lab" she replied as she stepped beside Sparky.

"He didn't happen to tell you what his function was did he?" Sparky asked, still quite wary of 628.

"Don't worry Sparky, 628 is an apprentice experiment."

Sparky tilted his head as he continued to look at 628. "You mean he is an evil genius in the making?"

"No, I am allowed to research in any way I choose to do so. But my primary function is to assist Jumba in his work." 628 said in an attempt to clear up the matter on his programming.

"Umm…ok. But why are you looking for me? Something wrong?" Sparky asked, figuring if Jumba's new assistant had coming looking for him, Jumba had probably sent him.

"I wish to ask you a question."

This eased Sparky's worries. He wasn't in trouble, and nothing was wrong, at least not with him. He was being to suspect that Jumba went wrong somewhere with 628's programming, because he was acting WAY too civil for a newly activated experiment, or any experiment, for that matter. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you ask for hair?"

Sparky sighed to himself. Of all the questions it could have been, why this one? He had been asked it so many times in the past months, and everyone who asked already knew the answer, they had just wanted to embarrass him. "I thought I told Jumba, I wanted something to groom. I wanted to add something to my appearance. Why don't people just leave me alone about it?"

628's reaction was unexpected. Sparky had figured he would laugh, or tease him, or, if he was truly ignorant on the matter, just drop the subject. Instead, he merely replied "Jumba said you did it for love. Was he not correct in his assumption?"

Sparky just put his hand to his forehead. This experiment was something totally different that was for sure. "No, it's true. I just don't know why people keep going on about it. It isn't a big deal."

Again, a surprising response. "Why? You are not yet able to mate, and I cannot see how hair would assist in this matter, as I cannot see why 626 would require an alternate form for the same reason."

Now Sparky was certain that 628 had been dropped when he was being created. Before he could answer, Clip answered for him. "You do things to make the one you love happy, and love is more that just eventually having children. As for Stitch, his girlfriend was of a different species, so his change made all the sense in the world."

628's head tilted slightly. "I believe I understand. 323 received an upgrade to be more attractive to you, his mate, and 626 received his upgrade to be able to be with his in a compatible form."

"That's about right. Sparky's hair does make him look cute, and Stitch and Lilo's relationship got a lot easier when Stitch became able to pass for a human. Oh and 628, you should call other experiments by their names, not their numbers. It more personable and I'm sure Jumba instructed you to not draw attention to yourself."

"Indeed, he did. Thank you, Clip." 628 said as he made a mental note to learn the names of the other experiments.

"Do you have a name, 628?" Clip asked.

This made 628 pause in thought. Did he have a name? He knew Jumba had given him a designation, but did he also give him a name? "I do not know. Jumba did not program me with the knowledge of my name, but perhaps in afterthought he gave me one?"

"Well, Lilo usually gives experiments their names; maybe she will give you one too." Clip said cheerfully. 628 was indeed very polite and calm, which was a nice change from many of the other male experiments.

"How bout 'Dork'?" Sparky said, somewhat agitated.

"Sparky!" Clip said as she knocked him upside the head.

Clip was about to make Sparky apologize, when 628 spoke up. "I am not allowed to be seen by Lilo or Stitch."

"I see." Clip said putting her claw to her chin in thought. "Well, then I guess you should go ask Jumba then. If he didn't give you one, I guess you will have to make one up yourself."

"Thank you. When I finish my excursion, I will ask Jumba about my name."

As 628 walked away, Clip turned to Sparky. "What a nice experiment, but a bit on the inquisitive side."

"I still think Jumba dropped him during creation."

And then Clip smacked him again.

Lilo walked along slowly as she followed Stitch pushing his bike along. They were in no hurry to get home; they had a lot to talk about. It was not yet dark, and they had spent most of the day hanging out with Jason and the others, but now they were alone, and could talk freely about more personal matters.

"Stitch, I'm sorry for the way I've been acting lately, it's just that I've been trying to keep you out of trouble, and help you fit in more, but you just been making it so hard, and it's frustrating." Lilo said in a sad tone.

She looked over at Stitch and smiled softly as he replied to her. "It's okay Lilo. You have nothing to be sorry for. I do, I keep getting out of hand. I don't listen to you when you try to help me. I keep acting up, and yet you continue to love me anyway. You are the best thing that ever happened to me."

Lilo blushed. "Stitch, stop flattering me. But it's not all your fault. And you aren't the only one who has done wrong. Remember when Greg Derenger called the vice principal some very colorful names?"

This got Stitch's interest. "Yeah, I remember. He got kicked out of school. And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person." Then it clicked in Stitch's mind. "Lilo, did you have anything to do with that?" He said with a stern tone.

Lilo turned her eyes to the ground. "Yes. I used my gaze on him to get him expelled. I altered his memories afterwards"

Stitch stopped her right there. "Lilo, how could you do something like that? You got him expelled, on purpose. I mean, I know he was a real jerk, but still…"

"Stitch, you should have heard what he called me and some of the other girls."

Stitch's eyes narrowed. "What did he call you?"

"Every sexist comment in the book, at one time or another."

"Why that little…" Stitch proceeded to mutter some very nasty Turanian curses. He then turned to Lilo. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't want you to get in a fight. The principal has been looking for reasons to kick you out of school. I knew if I told you, you'd confront him. So I decided to take care of it myself."

Stitch dropped his bike on the ground and grabbed Lilo by the shoulders. "Lilo, what if someone had seen you? Do you know what would happen if everyone found out what you are, what WE are?"

Lilo did the most surprising thing. She smiled. "See how you make me feel all the time Stitch?"

Stitch's eyes got wide. "Why you little…that wasn't funny. I was really afraid you had used your powers on Greg."

"I did." Lilo said a matter of factly. Then she leaned over to whisper in Stitch's ear. "Stitch, I love you. And I think I've finally begun to understand how this relationship is going to have to work for it to survive. We are going to have to realize that we are NOT human, and we shouldn't think we are. We may look it, and we may act it most of the time, but you are an experiment, and so am I."

Stitch was now extremely confused. Lilo had just pulled a 180 on him. A couple of hours ago, she was furious at him for getting into trouble. Now she said he SHOULD get into trouble. "Lilo. I don't understand, you were mad at me before about it, now why are you all for it?"

Lilo looked downwards again. "No Stitch, I was the one who didn't understand. I guess the 'incident' clouded my judgment a little."

"Lilo," Stitch said with a stern tone, "how many times have I told you she's gone?"

"I know Stitch, but the memories won't go away." Lilo said as she turned to face him.

Stitch rested his other arm on her "Lilo, I realize that."

Lilo followed suit and put her arms around him. "Listen Stitch. Today made me realize that I have to let you be yourself, and you tend to get into trouble a lot. And now that I remember correctly, Cobra didn't specifically say that you couldn't get into trouble, just that he expected you not to."

Stitch grinned at his girlfriend's words. "Your right. And I also recall he said that we were to only not change in public. Our powers were not included in that."

Lilo smiled back at him. "Yep, so I guess making Myrtle do the chicken dance in the school cafeteria isn't wrong either."

"Lilo," Stitch said as he held her closer. "Let's not get too carried away. Just like I can't lift a car over my head in human form, you can't be making someone do something TOO outrageous, some of the more paranoid students might get curious."

"You mean like Alex? You do know he is related to Cobra, right?" Lilo said with a knowing smirk.

Stitch's eyes widened. "You're kidding me."

Lilo smirked. "Nope. Don't you see the resemblance? Besides, Cobra told me a long time ago he had a nephew on the island, one that wanted to be just like his uncle Cobra."

Stitch smirked back at her. "Well, that explains why Knuckles treats our pranks like missions and gives them code names."

The two continued to talk and laugh until they got near home. Lilo turned to Stitch and looked him in the eyes. "Stitch, the past few months have been the happiest I've ever known. The only thing wrong is that we were trying to act like we were normal. But we aren't. You can lift several thousand pounds, and I can fire beams of energy from my hands and manipulate a person's mind."

"Lilo, we cannot use our powers in public, we will give ourselves away. I'm extremely happy that you have finally come to terms with the fact you are not human anymore, but don't get carried away Lilo, I don't want you taking control of your teacher to get out of a pop quiz."

Lilo turned to meet Stitch's gaze. "I know Stitch. But Jumba said I was a peacemaker experiment, and I'd like to be able to use my powers to do that. You know, fulfill my purpose?"

"Lilo, if I fulfilled my purpose, I'd be causing chaos on a global scale." Stitch replied.

"Stitch, that's not the same thing." Lilo said as she kissed him on the cheek. "And you do cause chaos, just smaller."

Stitch wasn't amused. He didn't use his powers in human form for a good reason, and the same reason applied to Lilo. "Lilo, making your enemies make fools out of themselves is not peacemaking; it's you amusing yourself at the expense of others."

Lilo smiled slightly. "Since when did you have such a strong moral compass?"

"I have you to thank."

"Yeah, I know. Hey Stitch, you remember that story Jumba told us when he explained my powers?"

Three months prior

Lilo and Stitch were sitting in Jumba's ship while he was working on some minor invention. They were asking him questions about Lilo's powers, mostly about why he gave her the ones he did.

"I am telling you, little girl is a peacemaking experiment. Gave her powers to match function."

"Ok, but why did you give her the beam cannon and the wing blast? Those have nothing to do with peacemaking."

Jumba sighed. "How are you knowing that? Sometimes force is only way to be beating force."

"Jumba, I don't understand, how can destructive powers like mine help create peace?"

Jumba turned to them and smiled. "Little girl, let me be telling you story about a war that ended not by words, but by force. Not force of evil kind, no, force of kind that was inspiring awe in all who was seeing it. Listen closely."

Jumba's story

A long time ago two races, the Rodieniens and the Feliendians, fought a great war that lasted many centuries. They hated each other with a fury, but had all but forgotten what they were fighting over. They fought merely out of a need to destroy one another and though many innocent worlds were caught up in their war, the two fought over them and their people without regard to the wishes of the natives. But all that changed one day, a day that should have been the last for an innocent world known as Tyrus.

The people of Tyrus were peace-loving, but only due to the many wars they had fought over the course of their history. When the Rodieniens came to Tyrus to ask for a trading partnership, the Tyrusians refused outright, knowing it would eventually lead them into an interstellar war. Then the Feliendians offered the same, and again were rejected. To the Feliendains that was the end of the matter, but the Rodieniens wanted the weapons grade ores on the world, and continued to pester the Tyrusians. Of course, the Feliendains were not going to let the Rodieniens get a hold of the ore, and were prepared to occupy the planet; just they had done so many times before.

Both armadas gathered to fight over the planet, and there were sure to be major casualties to the native Tyrusians as the two fought over the world. As all hope seemed lost, a man in a strange red armor, unlike any ever worn by any race, came from nowhere. He hovered in space before the lead ships of the two armies and telepathically commanded the two to stop fighting, that their foolish war had destroyed so many lives already, and that they would end up destroying everything if they continued.

Now the Feliendain leader was not about to take chances, this man seemed to radiate power. The ships systems were going haywire from his mere presence. He immediately had his ships back away from the being. The Rodienien leader believed it to be a trick, what could stop an entire armada single handily? He ordered his men to fire upon him, and the blaze of a thousand cannons brightened the skies of Tyrus. The general laughed as the light cleared, sure that he had vaporized the interloper.

He was wrong. There he floated, looking as if the beams had missed him completely. All were frozen in shock as he began to glow brighter than the sun. The scanners on the general's ship confirmed that ALL the blasts had connected with their target, but it seemed to have done nothing. Undaunted,he ordered his men to fire again. A flaming blade appeared in the being's hands, and with it he made a single horizontal slash. The blade created a massive shockwave of energy, and the last thing the general of the Rodienien army saw was the energy from his own weapons turned back at him by the sword of fire.

The armored space knight turned back to the Feliendains, who were shocked to find that their ships would not move. He then spoke to them once more. "Go, leave this world in peace. Return to your own homeworld, and there tell your leader of my words. Had you fought over this world, you would have eventually caused the destruction of not only it, but your home as well. The elements on this planet are not what you believe them to be, they are infused with Dimenion. The war you fought over mere words told centuries ago almost became the end of everything. Now go, and remember the folly of the Rodienien fleet, and the price they paid for it."

The Feliendain leader heard the tale from his men, and immediately called for a truce. The Rodieniens hastily agreed, most of their armada having been destroyed. The war ended, and the two formed a pact that one day became the Galactic Alliance. The strange being was never seen again.

End Jumba's tale

Both children looked up at Jumba in awe. "Did that really happen Jumba?" Lilo said wide eyed.

"Is impossible to say. Something did happen, and whatever it was, it scrambled all communication devices on ships. But is probably an exaggeration, no creature is capable of such feats. More likely something went wrong with Rodienien ship, causing chain reaction. Ships of that day were very unstable."

"What was that thing?" Stitch asked.

"Well, no one was knowing exactly until the discovery of ruins on Aragor 3." Jumba said, now having lost all interest in his invention.

"What was so important about Aragor 3?" Lilo asked, her attention still completely on Jumba.

"Aragor 3 was at one time home to very advanced civilization. Excavations showed that the Aragorians could travel space thousands of years before any other race. And that's not all, texts found on the planet suggested they were being capable of many things the Galactic Alliance is now just learning, such as teleportation and time travel."

"But what does that have to do with the red warrior?" Stitch asked, wanting Jumba to cut to the chase.

"The most surprising find was certain texts claiming to know secrets of interdimensional travel. Most were too illegible to discern how, but did reveal that Dimenion was used in the process, and that it was extremely unstable, could cause massive wormhole to form."

"Just like that guy said it would. He is real." Lilo said in an excited voice.

"Well, am unsure about him being real, but many of the texts recovered were stories about him. It was King of Felein that recognized the description of the mysterious being." Jumba said as he paused for a moment before finishing.

"The texts called him Siron."

Return to present

"Lilo, what are you getting at?"

"Think about it. Words weren't going to stop those two groups from fighting, so something else had to be done. It's the same with me. Greg, for instance, wouldn't stop making comments at us, no matter what we asked or who we told."

"Yeah, I do remember something about Greg's dad being on the school board." Stitch said as they got into the driveway.

"Well, I used my power to make it stop. And if you think about it, a little mind control could solve quite a few problems." Lilo replied.

"You can't be going around and just solving everyone's problems by mind control. You might get caught, not to mention the fact it isn't right."

Lilo turned her head away. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I have no excuse to use my powers, but it's just so hard to resist sometimes."

Stitch leaned in close. "But you can do it Lilo, I did."

Lilo knew what he wanted, and she gave it to him. Their lips met, and for the moment, they had no troubles in the world.

It had grown dark by the time 628 decided to return to the ship. He found Jumba working on his latest project while eating on a cold piece of chicken. "I have returned from my exploration Jumba."

Jumba put down the device and the leg of chicken and turned to face 628. "Good, good, was needing your assistance about now. Could you fetch me a generator coil from the storage container?"

628 went over to the container and retrieved the coil. "Here you are Jumba."

And so it went on. Jumba would work on the device and give 628 directions, and 628 would bring him the parts he required. The two didn't talk to each other for awhile, but Jumba finally broke the silence. "So 628, what have you learned today? Was 323 able to answer your questions?"

"It was Clip that answered them for me, Jumba, but I did get the answer I was looking for."

Now 628 calling an experiment by anything other than its number was surprising. "628, why were you calling experiment by name little girl gave it, and not by number I assigned?"

628 turned to his creator, hoping he had not upset him. "She asked me to call her by name, she said I would attract attention if I did not call the experiments by their names. I hope this does not upset you."

Jumba laughed. "Of course not, 628, is good you are trying to keep low profile."

"Jumba." 628 said in a tone that implied he wanted to ask a question.

"Yes 628?" Jumba said as he looked down at his experiment.

"Do I have a name?" 628 asked, not in his usual scientific tone, but in an expectant one.

Jumba sighed. 628 took this as a no. "If I do not have a name, perhaps I can make up one for myself?"

Jumba closed his eyes and slowly opened them again. "Is not that, 628, you do have a name.Unlike other experiments, I was giving your project special name, and thus is your name."

"What is it?" 628 said in anticipation.

"It was...Project Siron."

End Chapter 2

Next Chapter

The Date


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 3: The Date

_I'm coming Lilo. I am coming, and I will take him and everything you hold dear. You have not escaped, you can NEVER escape. Nothing will save you from me._

Lilo awoke with a loud scream, her heart pounding, and her muscles tense with fear. Her wings were out and had begun to charge in reflex to her fright. This was the third time this week to have the same dream. She never saw anything; in fact, she could almost swear she wasn't dreaming. She would just be lying there, and then suddenly, she would begin to hear the voice. It was her own voice, but it wasn't her voice; it was dripping with evil and malice. It was Lilith. She would try to move, try to get away, but her body would refuse to respond. She could only lay there, helpless, as the voice came closer. Then she felt the crushing, Lilith was trying to smother her. She still would not be able to see her, but there was no mistaking the source. The malicious force would whisper her threat in Lilo's ear, and then she would awaken.

She got up out of bed, still breathing heavily. She flipped on the light. There was nothing in her room. No evil twin bent on killing her and the rest of the world. She retracted her wings, and went downstairs to get a drink. She crept fearfully in the dark, the dream was still fresh in her mind, and every noise made her jump. It was raining and thundering outside, and as she left the kitchen, lightning flashed. She turned and saw a winged figure against the wall. She screamed again, thinking it was her greatest fear. Actually, it was her looking it the new mirror Pleakly had brought home from the mall. The lightning had caused her to sprout her wings in reflex, as she was still extremely shaky.

"Stupid mirror." Lilo said as she tried to retract her wings. They wouldn't go back in. When she looked back at the mirror, she realized she had transformed into Sora. "Great, now I'm so shook up I've went into experiment form."

She turned to see the door to the guest room. She knew she shouldn't, she and Stitch would be in serious trouble if she did, but right now she was so frightened that she didn't care. She slowly turned the knob on Stitch's bedroom door. The door creaked open, and she made her way to Stitch's bed. The room was a complete disaster: comic books, trading cards, and various other things covered the floor. In summary, a typical twelve-year old's bedroom. Lilo noticed that Stitch was sleeping in experiment form, which wasn't surprising, since they both preferred to sleep in their original forms. She climbed up into his bed and lay down next to him. One of her feathers tickled Stitch's nose by accident, and he woke up.

When he saw what woke him, he shot up. "Lilo? What are you doing in my bed?"

"Stitch, I'm scared." Lilo said as she reached for him.

It was at this point that Stitch realized that Lilo was in Sora form; her wings were at full, and slightly charged to boot. They glowed a pale blue, lighting the room only slightly. He knew she didn't sleep in experiment form, and she kept her wings retracted most of the time. The fact they were out AND charged meant she was telling the truth, something had scared her badly.

"Lilo, are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?" Stitch said with sympathy. She turned to him, and the look in her eyes told Stitch everything he needed to know, she had had a nightmare. She spoke softly, her voice still full of fear.

"Had and been having. Stitch it was horrible, I dreamt she was coming to kill me. She said she was coming and that I could never escape her."

Stitch instinctively knew who 'she' was. He held her close, and kissed her cheek. "It's okay Lilo, it was just a bad dream. She isn't coming back. She's gone."

Lilo however wasn't calming down. "But Stitch, remember when you had that nightmare? What happened the next day?"

She had him there. He sighed and held her closer. "It's okay Lilo. If you need to, you can spend the night here."

She looked up and smiled at him, and then she closed in for the kiss. The two met for just a quick peck, and then Stitch laid back down. "Now try to get some sleep." He said as he pulled the covers over himself. Lilo crawled under the covers herself and nudged closer to him. The fear subsided, and sleep claimed her.

What she didn't realize is that Nani had heard her screaming and got up to check on her. Seeing that she wasn't in her room, she ran downstairs, afraid she had gotten hurt, or worse. She came down just in time to her Lilo talking to Stitch in his room. She crept silently to the door, and listened as Lilo convinced Stitch to let her sleep there for the night. Nani smiled slightly, she knew if Cobra found out they would be in trouble, but Lilith was still a great fear of Lilo's and Nani knew that being around Stitch would comfort her. She slowly crept away, deciding that she would talk to Cobra later about Lilo and Stitch possibly sharing a room again, Lilo had not been sleeping as well without him, and it wouldn't cause any harm. As she walked back into the kitchen, she saw that David had gotten up as well. (They finally decided to move in together.)

"Lilo have another nightmare?" David said as he shut the fridge.

"Yeah, I think she's been having the same one for awhile. She's sleeping in Stitch's room, she needs the comfort." Nani said in a slightly worried tone.

"What she having nightmares about? When she became an experiment?" David said as he drank the glass of milk. David had been at a surfing contest on the main island when the Lilith incident occurred, and came back to find Lilo an experiment and Stitch a human, sort of. Nani kept the truth from him for a while, but finally got around to telling him when he realized all the stuff in the house was new, about a month later. The news was the most shocking thing David had ever heard in his entire life, the fact that Lilo could do anything nearly that bad was unbelievable. After that, David decided to finally move in, thinking that Nani needed all the help she could get after all the family had gone through. He had been a big help, and it was just last month he finally asked the question everyone had been waiting for him to ask for years. Now he and Nani were engaged, and were to be married in the summer.

He looked over at his fiancé and saw her troubled look. He got up and wrapped his arms around her. "What's bothering you Nani. You look worried."

Nani sighed. "It's just when Stitch had a bad nightmare like this, something bad happened. What if it happens again? I don't think I could handle it." She said as she began to tear up.

David held her closer. "It's okay Nani, its okay to be scared. Lilo is your little sister, and the both of you have been through a lot. But don't worry, everything will be okay. Now lets get back to bed, you need to rest."

Nani smiled. "You're right. Jumba said Lilo couldn't become evil again; she was immune to Angel's song. But why can't I get over this sense of dread?"

"You're just worried about Lilo. That Lilith thing scared both of you. You just need to calm down. Tell you what, tomorrow you and I will go surfing. That will get your mind off your troubles."

"Okay David, but I am still worried about Lilo. And tomorrow I'm going to ask Cobra if they can stay in the same room together, at least until Lilo gets over her nightmares."

The two made their way up to bed, and silence fell over the house once more.

The sun shone brightly the next morning, without a cloud to be found. Lilo opened her eyes slowly. She looked around, and realized she wasn't in her room. _Where am I? Oh that's right; I slept in Stitch's room. Oh no, what time is it? If Nani finds out I was in here last night, she'll blow a fuse! Then she'll tell Cobra, and both I and Stitch will be in trouble._ Lilo shot out of bed, startling Stitch.

"Huh, what's going on?" Stitch said groggily. "Lilo, what's wrong, you didn't have another nightmare did you?"

"No, but our lives are going to become one if Nani finds out I slept in here!" Lilo said as she peeked out the door.

This got Stitch up. He realized they had just broken another rule. "Wait Lilo, let me go out first and distract the family. Then you sneak out and back upstairs." Stitch then took human form, and walked out the door.

He went into the kitchen to see Pleakly cooking breakfast. Nani was sitting at the table, and Jumba and David were no where to be found. Pleakly turned to see who had come in, and greeted Stitch. "Morning Stitch, would you like some breakfast?"

"No thanks, has anyone seen Lilo, I'd like to ask her something." Stitch said, trying to bluff.

"What, you didn't notice her in bed with you this morning? Or did she get up before you woke up?" Nani said as she looked up, smiling.

Stitch suddenly became very nervous. "Umm…I don't know what you are talking about."

"Drop the act Stitch. I heard Lilo wake up screaming last night, and I saw her go into your room. It's okay. Lilo had a nightmare, and she needed comfort. I understand."

Just then Lilo walked into the room. "Morning everyone." She then gave Stitch a peck on the cheek. "Sleep well?"

"With you next to him all night, I'm pretty sure he slept better than usual." Nani said as she started eating.

"What are you talking about?" Lilo said, unconvincingly.

"Forget it Lilo, Nani knows." Stitch said as he sat down.

This got Lilo scared. "Nani, please don't tell on us! I got scared last night, and I went to Stitch for comfort. I'm sorry, don't tell Cobra. Please!"

Nani chuckled at her sister's begging. "Lilo, I'm not going to get you in trouble. You're good enough at that by yourself."

Lilo breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Nani, I had a bad enough nightmare last night, I don't need to live one this morning."

Pleakly looked up from his cooking. "Is that why there is a blast hole next to my new mirror?"

Lilo became worried again. "Sorry, Nani. I saw my reflection last night, and I thought it was her. I must have let a blast go out of reflex."

Nani smiled softly. She understood completely. She too was afraid of that monster returning. Jumba said that Lilo would never become that again, and yet she was still afraid. "It's alright Lilo, I'm sure Jumba can patch the hole."

"Speaking of which, where is Jumba? It's not like him to miss breakfast." Pleakly said as he plated eggs for Lilo and Stitch.

Jumba was outside in his ship, concerned. He could not have possibly imagined that doing a simple thing such as revealing 628's name to him would have such a drastic effect. 628 learned his name, and knew from his inherent knowledge the legend behind that name. But he was an apprentice experiment, designed to learn and created new technologies. Why then was he given the name of a powerful warrior, one that was said to have destroyed an entire armada in one swing of his sword? Jumba saw this concern in his creation, and made another mistake, revealing that 628 had another function. A function that Jumba never wanted to activate. It was a defense mechanism. After he told 628 this, he realized that he could not reveal how the program worked, because of the inherent danger. This upset 628, and when he awoke this morning, he was gone. Jumba knew that 628 would eventually return, but what could be causing this reaction? He had explained it well enough that 628 should have understood that the second function was trivial, which although an outright lie, should have been an acceptable answer. But there was nothing he could do but wait for 628 to return, and try to straighten things out. He stepped outside and spoke to himself as he stared into the morning sky. "Little one, what is going through you mind now?"

Meanwhile, Stitch had gotten an idea to cheer Lilo up. He went to his room and dug a small box out of his dresser. He opened it up and took out the money it contained. Stitch had been doing odd jobs around the island, helping Mrs. Hasigawa with unloading new fruit shipments, helping Mr. Jameson with cleaning out the storage room of his hotel, etc. He had at least $200, and he knew just what to do with it: he was going to take Lilo on a date she would never forget. He knew everything needed to be perfect, and so he decided to do the one thing he would never normally do willing: he took a bath.

When Lilo heard the bath water running, she figured it was Nani or David, getting ready to go out. But when she looked outside, she saw both of them with surfboards in hand, walking down the driveway. Then she looked in the kitchen, and there was Jumba and Pleakly. Jumba was trying to eat, and Pleakly was chewing his ear off about the fact that he had been late to breakfast and wouldn't tell him why. That meant only one person could be in the bathroom, but that was impossible. Stitch never took a bath of his own free will. It was a task just to get him to bathe before school. But when she went upstairs, she heard Stitch humming to himself, in his human voice. "That's odd; Stitch never baths in his human form." She waited for him outside. The door opened, and a cloud of steam escaped as Stitch walked out in his bathrobe. She stepped in front of him, and he jumped back.

"Don't scare me like that!" Stitch said as he fumbled with his bathrobe.

"Why were you taking a bath, on a Sunday of all days? I have enough trouble trying to get you to bathe during the week." Lilo responded.

Stitch smiled. "It's a secret."

As he walked past her, she grabbed his robe. "What's a secret? What are you up too?"

He stopped, but didn't turn around. "Remember that money I earned doing those odd jobs?"

Lilo gave him a quizzical look. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Stitch's smile became larger. "I finally figured out what I wanted to spend it on."

"And this made you take a bath, why?"

He turned around, to see the expression that his next statement would undoubtedly put on his girlfriend's face. "I want to spend it on you. Will you go on a date with me?"

He got an expression alright. Lilo's face lit up, and she hugged him tightly. "Of course I will!"

Stitch pushed her away. "Okay, okay. But let me finish getting ready."

Lilo smiled a smile that let Stitch know that she wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "Ok, but I need two things first."

"What?" Stitch asked.

He got his answer a second later, when Lilo grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face into hers. The two became locked in a heavy kiss, which Lilo was reluctant to end. She finally pulled away when she realized she was kissing her boyfriend in his bathrobe. Now both were too young, both human and experiment wise, for this to mean anything, but that didn't matter, it was still embarrassing. She laughed nervously as she let go. "Umm…sorry about that, I got carried away."

Stitch was still in a daze. When he was finally able to snap out of it a few seconds later, he remembered that Lilo said she needed two things, and although that was one heck of a kiss, that was still just one kiss. "What else did you need?" he asked, his voice still a little detached, he hadn't fully recovered from Lilo's powerful show of affection yet.

"I need time to get ready myself. Give me about an hour and half okay?" she said as she went into the bathroom.

Stitch smiled to himself. _Yep, life couldn't get any better for me._

It took Lilo over an hour to get ready, but by that time Stitch had already gotten everything in order. He decided that they would go to lunch at French-fry and Dupes new bistro, then head for the movies to see "Revenge of the Beach Mummies", which had just come out and Lilo was dying to see. Then they would get some ice cream and walk along the beach. A perfect date.

As Stitch finished leaving Nani a note that they would be going out, since Pleakly was out getting groceries and Jumba was locked up in his ship, he turned to see Lilo come down the stairs. "Well, are we ready to go?" she asked as she came up to him.

"Everything is ready." Stitch said as he took her hand. "Ready for the perfect date?"

Lilo turned to him and said "It's already perfect, it's with you."

It took the pair about 20 minutes to reach the bistro. When they arrived, Lilo was a bit surprised. "Stitch, are we stopping to say hi to Dupe and French-fry?"

"Not exactly. We are eating here." Stitch said with a grin.

Lilo's face became one of shock. "Are you kidding? How much money do you have? The stuff here cost like $30 dollars a person!"

"Don't worry about it, I have enough." To illustrate his point, he opens his wallet.

"Stitch, you can't spend all this on me. I wouldn't feel right about it." Lilo said as she pushed the wallet away.

Stitch just held her for a moment. "Lilo, I owe you more than I could ever repay. You have always been there for me, now let me treat you like the goddess you are."

Lilo blushed heavily at Stitch's words of devotion. "Stitch, I love you more than anything." She leaned in for a kiss, just as the waiter arrived.

"So what brings you two here, a romantic date perhaps?" said the waiter as he came up to the table. It was none other than Dupe. Of course he spoke in Turian, since most of the experiments spoke better Turian than English.

"Yeah, I wanted to take Lilo on our first real date." Stitch said as he and Lilo sat down.

"And you chose our fine establishment? We're flattered." came another voice. It was French-Fry, who had also noticed Lilo and Stitch walk up. "What can we get you today?"

Lilo and Stitch looked over the menus, and finally decided on what to order: Lilo got a French Dip, and Stitch ordered a Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich. Dupe and French-Fry headed back to the kitchen to prepare their meals. 10 minutes later, the pair returned. "Here you go. Enjoy." French-Fry said as he put down the plates.

"Thanks. It looks wonderful." Lilo said as she picked up the sandwich.

As the two enjoyed their meals, they couldn't help but notice that some of the other people were taking glances. They could hear voices saying, "Ah isn't that adorable?" and "Young love. Such a wonderful sight."

"People are looking at us Stitch." Lilo said in a whisper.

"Yeah, I noticed. I guess kids our age don't go on dates all that often." Stitch said as he finished his sandwich.

"Not to bistros, anyway." Lilo said as she finished off her salad. She then glanced down at her watch. "Stitch, we need to get going or we are going to miss the movie!"

"Check please." Stitch said to the waiter.

"Right away." the waiter said as he gave Stitch his check.

It turned out that Dupe and French-Fry had given them a bit of discount. Lilo looked at the check, and saw what they had done. "Wasn't that nice of them?" Lilo said as she reached for her purse.

Stitch put his hand on her arm. "Nuh-uh. I'm paying for this bugee-boo."

"Stitch, I don't want to impose." Lilo said as she took his arm off hers. "At least let me leave a tip."

"No Lilo, I want to. I want you to feel special today." He replied with a smile.

"But Stitch," Lilo said as she leaned in close, "you make me feel special everyday."

She kissed him lightly, getting an "Ahhhh" out of some of the other patrons.

When she pulled back, Stitch whispered back. "The feeling's mutual."

The pair made it to the theater just in time to get tickets. Lilo decided that she was still full from lunch, but Stitch, being Stitch, got the biggest thing of popcorn the theater sold. They normally got seats at the back of the theater, since Stitch liked to throw food at unsuspecting people (ironically, couples used to be one of his favorite targets). But they decided to sit up close, since Lilo wanted to minimize the chances that someone big would sit in the way. And wouldn't you know it, ten minutes into the movie, and an M&M bounces off Stitch's head. Stitch turns around to see PJ flicking candy into the crowd. Stitch just about got up, but Lilo held his hand and said "See, now were the couple, and PJ's throwing the food. How does it feel now that you're on the receiving end?"

"Fine, I won't throw any more jellybeans." Stitch grumbled as he sat back down. He could have sworn he heard PJ laugh from behind him.

The movie was as good as Lilo had heard it would be, and at the part where the mummy princess and the hero fall in love, Lilo turned to Stitch. "What does that remind you of, Stitch?"

Stitch smiled slightly and turned to her. "Us."

Stitch was rewarded for his correct answer with an embrace and a deep kiss. At the same time the two characters on the screen where kissing, no less.

Then Stitch got walloped with a fistful of chocolate coated peanuts.

When the two left the movie theater, Stitch was still grumbling about how he was going to pay a 'special' visit to PJ sometime VERY soon. Meanwhile, Lilo had turned her attention to a memorabilia store, when she stopped dead in her tracks. There in the window was a ring, one any diehard fan of Elvis would recognize.

"Stitch, look." Lilo stuttered out.

Stitch turned to look at the store window, and saw the ring as well. However, not being as a diehard fan of Elvis, he didn't recognize the ring. "What Lilo, I don't see anything special."

"Stitch, that ring is an exact replica of the one Elvis wore at his 'Aloha' concert! It was made special for him, and it was the most expensive piece of jewelry he ever owned!" Lilo said in excitement. She then became depressed when she saw the price. "Three-hundred bucks? I'll never come up with that kind of money."

Stitch felt his girlfriend's disappointment. He couldn't afford the ring either, but he vowed that one day, he'd save up enough money to buy it for her. Even if it was a guy's ring, he knew she would find a special place on her mantle to Elvis for it. But he couldn't tell her about it, she would stop him from buying it for her. He smiled as he attempted to cheer Lilo up. "It's okay Lilo, let's go get some ice cream."

Lilo looked up at her boyfriend and smiled. "Sure, I'd love to." Then Lilo looked him in the eyes, "And Stitch, don't even think about buying me that ring. Its way too expensive, and I don't want you to blow everything you earn on me. It's isn't right, and it makes me feel guilty."

"Whatever you say, Bugee-Boo." Stitch said as he took her hand.

"I mean it Stitch. Do not buy me that ring." Lilo said in a sterner tone.

"And why not?" Stitch said in a false defiant tone.

"Because I want a husband who can manage his money and not spend it on stupid things." Lilo said to him in return.

Stitch went into 'pretend submissive' mode. "Yes dear." Then he added. "You're thinking about marriage THIS early?"

Lilo smirked. "Why not? I mean it's never too early to start planning for the rest of our lives, and we are going to stay together forever, RIGHT?" Her tone was suggesting "you better answer yes or there is going to be trouble."

Stitch gulped. "Yes, of course. Forever!"

Lilo began to giggle uncontrollably. "Stitch, you know you are so easy to tease."

Stitch's cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "Very funny Lilo." Then he smiled a mischievous smirk. "And you are so easy to do this to."

Before Lilo could react, Stitch scooped her up into his arms, like a bride.

"Stitch, put me down!" Lilo said, half attempting to be stern, but the giggling was a dead give away that she found this just as enjoyable as he did. He held her there and gave her a kiss. After about a minute or so of Lilo pretending to try to break free and Stitch carrying her like he was going to run off with her, he put her down. Both had to catch there breath from all the laughing they had been doing. Lilo finally said, "Now who's getting ahead of themselves? All ready to carry me off?"

"You bet." Stitch said. "Now let's get some ice cream."

On the other side of the island, Siron walked slowly, contemplating the truth of what he was. _Why did Jumba give me a second function, if he never intended me to use it? What sort of function could possibly warrant giving me the name of a legendary warrior?_ He then thought back to last night.

To the conversation that challenged everything he believed about himself.

Flashback

"I do not understand." Siron said to his four eyed creator. "Why is that my name? Siron was a supposed legendary figure that the founders of the Galactic Alliance were said to have encountered at the end of the First Inter-Stellar War. I am but a mere apprentice with no combat abilities, how does that correlate to me?"

"Little one should not be worrying head over name he was given." Jumba said as he patted Siron on his head. "It bears no importance to what you are supposed to be doing."

"But why? Why name me something like that? I know that it's is not in your nature to name something without a reason for the name." Siron said as he moved away.

"How are you knowing what is in my nature?" Jumba said in a tone that let Siron know he didn't like this line of questioning.

Normally, this would have been where Siron would have stopped, but he felt he had to know the answer, even if he would be going against his programming. "You are a scientist, and scientists usually give names that are relative to what is being named."

Jumba couldn't help but crack a smile at his creation's ability to reason. "Is true. And yes, name should correspond to function. Perhaps a renaming is in order?"

"I want to know why my name is what it is now, not what it should be." Siron said, never losing the calm in his voice. Inside however, the reality that he might not know everything about himself was tearing at him. He was supposed to seek knowledge about the world around him, but what was the point if he did not know everything about himself? How could he focus on the task of finding new discoveries if he knew that there was more to be discovered about himself?

"Am understanding, but name was based on old function, one you were suppose to be having before."

This got Siron's attention. He knew that reworking an experiment was difficult and that erasing one function while replacing it with another, unrelated function was impossible. So either Jumba was lying, or he had another function. "It is impossible for me to have had another function and lost it, unless I still possess it."

Jumba had made a blunder. Siron could see it in his face. Jumba finally just gave up. "Fine, you are being right." He said, exasperated. "You have another function. But is not as I said, you were always intended to be an eventual replacement for my genius in my old age. But things changed, and thus the added function and the name I gave it, and you."

Jumba had hoped that this would be the end of it, that Siron would be satisfied with the answer. But of course he knew better, 628 would not be happy until he learned everything.

"What is that second function? And how come I was programmed with no knowledge of it?" Siron said as his voice became happier, more expectant.

Jumba sat down. "It was a defense mechanism. And you are having no knowledge of it because it was such a late addition, after programming had been mostly completed. Is not mattering anyway, is trivial ability."

To Siron it was by no means trivial. "I understand, but how will I be able to use it?"

"When activated, it will trigger additional programming that is being for the moment dormant." Jumba said as he turned to his computer.

It was apparent that he was starting to get apprehensive about something. And this only worried Siron further. Could his secondary function be so powerful that Jumba wished it not to activate? Siron did not like violence, it was counterproductive. Still, he had to know the truth. "Why did you give it to me? And what does it do exactly?"

Jumba broke at that moment, knowing good and well that revealing the truth would upset his creation even further. "I will not be answering any more questions tonight! You should be worrying about primary function, not some trivial defense function!"

Siron saw Jumba's anger, and sulked away. He went to his room, where he had sat in thought until morning. Then he decided that exploring the island would aid him. Perhaps in observing the other experiments perhaps he would find insight into his own hidden purpose.

End Flashback

He had observed some of the other experiments during their daily activities, but this gave him no insight. In fact, it seemed as if the experiments were restraining themselves. Siron figured this was due either to the fact that they wished not to draw attention to themselves, or to the mysterious little girl, Lilo. He did have Jumba's knowledge, but not his memories, so Lilo was only a face. A person of which Siron knew nothing about, other than the fact that he was to stay away from her.

As he walked along, he had just about given it up. Without his files, he might never find out the truth, and he was sure after last night Jumba had probably locked away the information he sought. As he was about to turn around and head back, a voice broke him from his thoughts.

"You seem to be doing a lot of thinking."

Siron turned to see a small human child sitting on a bench. He had a strange hat on that covered most of his blond hair, and had a smile on his face. But nothing else stood out about him, until his next statement.

"The questions about ourselves are always the hardest to answer."

End Chapter 3

Next Chapter

A 'Chance' Encounter


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Sorry that this chapter has been so long, I have been distracted lately. And sadly, the next chapter will take even longer, because I am going out of town for two weeks, and will be away from my computer. The good news is that this chapter has a lot of stuff happening in it. It's not as long as some of my chapters, but at least 3 major things happen.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 4

A 'Chance' Encounter

Siron turned his full attention to the young human. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"Because you were thinking out loud." the little boy replied.

"Oh." Siron said as he sat down beside the child. Then it hit him that this boy either thought he was a talking animal, or that he knew he was an alien. "Don't I seem strange to you at all?"

"Nope. Not at all. You're just an alien."

Siron just sat there, completely shocked. What was with this child? According to psychology, this boy should either be running away or excited. He was neither. He just sat calmly.

"You look surprised. There are a lot of aliens on this island." the little boy said as he turned his attention to the sky. "Oh, by the way, my name is Chance, what's yours?"

"My name is Siron." Siron said as he looked up. "And why are you looking at the sky?"

"It helps me think about stuff. Why were you wondering about your name? It sounds pretty cool to me. Compared to the names of some of the other aliens, it's a really good name." Chance said as he continued to stare up at the afternoon sky.

"Yes, but it's what the name means that bothers me." Then Siron came back with a question of his own. "Why is it that you realize that aliens exist on this island, while other humans seem ignorant of the fact?"

Chance smiled as he answered. "Because most people rationalize what they see everyday, they close their minds to what might be, what is."

"What do you mean? Why would they ignore what is right in front of them and say it is something else?" To Siron this didn't make any sense.

"Because they have been doing it for a long time. The world is not a nice place, and enough of the truth strains on the mind that many people just don't want to know anymore. They don't think they could handle it."

Now it made even less sense. Siron had been programmed to try to learn everything, so it was unfathomable that someone would want to stop learning. "But why? How can the knowledge hurt them?" He noticed that Chance wasn't smiling anymore, his face was more neutral.

"It's because they're afraid. Afraid of the truth. My cousin once told me that people, if they knew the truth about everything, would never feel safe ever again. I don't know what those truths are, but if I find them one day, I suppose I'll just accept them as well."

It started to make sense to Siron, about humans and their apprehension. "I see, it's the old saying, 'what they don't know can't hurt them'".

Chance smiled again. "Right. If a bunch of people figured out you guys were aliens, they'd probably over-react and think that Earth was being invaded or something. And if one person just pointed it out, the other's would think he was nuts, so people just rationalize."

"Peer pressure. A perfectly expected response. But how come you are unaffected?" Siron said, still curious to the boy's overly accepting behavior.

"I think it's because I different from others. Mom and Dad say I'm a prodigy, and that I'm really smart for my age. My cousin says I'm just extremely observant, and that that is a good thing. Of course, Mom and Dad don't like me being around John too much, they say he's a bit unstable."

"John is your cousin, correct?"

"Yeah, he's cool, but a bit paranoid, and he's really into science fiction. Come to think of it, he'd probably recognize you as an alien too. A couple of his friends claimed to have seen an alien awhile back, but he just thought they were making up stories. But if he saw you he'd believe them."

The two continued to talk into the afternoon, when Chance brought up what Siron had been originally wondering about.

"Why were you concerned about your name? Does it mean something bad?" Chance said out of the blue.

Siron immediately remembered his current plight. "It's not what it means, but the namesake."

"Oh, did it belong to someone powerful or mean?"

"Mean, no, powerful, extremely." Siron said as he began to tell Chance the legend of Siron.

After the story had concluded, Siron was surprised to see that Chance wasn't shocked at all. In fact, he looked amused. "All this doesn't worry you at all? I mean, what sort of function could a name like that possibly indicate?"

Chance smiled as he tried to put his new friend's fears to rest. "It's a legend. Earth has lots of them. It gives us something to look to for guidance and lessons in how to live. As to your other function, if your creator won't tell you, I guess we'll have to work with what we know or can find out."

"I do not like guessing, it is inaccurate and often wrong."

"Then we won't just guess." Chance said as he put his chin to his fist in thought. "Hmm…most of the other aliens have name that hint at what they do, but you said they were named by a little girl and not their creator. Still, it's reasonable to assume that your name does have something to do with your hidden power, as your creator did admit it did."

As Siron watch him, something seemed odd, as if Chance was suddenly someone else, or at least different. He had no sign of the happy, carefree look the boy had previously had. Instead it was a face of focused thought, something no child of his age should be able to accomplish easily. Siron figured it was the fact that he was indeed a prodigy, and was merely utilizing it.

Chance meanwhile continued on. "Your creator said it was a last minute addition. Why did he add it, what made him add it?"

It hit Siron so fast that even he was caught by surprise. The answer he'd been looking for. "Jumba said the something happened to make him change his ways. I don't know why I think this has to do with it, but maybe what changed his ways caused him to add my addition programming. If I can find out what happened, perhaps I'll find my purpose."

Chance's face regained its normal glow. "Yeah, if you find out what scared him straight, maybe it will give you a clue to why you have your other function and maybe what it does!"

"What is 'scared straight'?" Siron said, wondering what his young friend was talking about.

"Oh, it's an Earth saying for going from bad to good via a bad experience. I mean, if he gave you a function that warranted your name, something bad must have happened he didn't want to happen again." Chance said as he slipped on one of his headphones.

Things were starting to make more sense by the minute for Siron. That would explain everything! Something bad happened to Jumba, something that must have turned him from evil forever. And whatever that was also scared Jumba into giving his new creation powers that he would have not otherwise given it. Maybe if he learned the nature of what it was that caused this shift in Jumba's behavior, he could figure out the powers he was given to counteract it!

Siron jumped off the bench and turned back to Chance. "Thank you, Chance. Your ideas have given me new insight into the possibilities of my origin. You are indeed the prodigy your parents claim you are."

"You're welcome." was Chance's only reply. He now had his music on, and had begun moving his head to the beat of the song.

Siron headed home, filled with a new sense of purpose. He would discover the hidden power he possessed, and finally be able to answer the question: what am I?

As Siron headed away, Chance turned to look his direction. He smiled slightly and said "You're right, it is a strange coincidence, huh?"

A few moments prior, Lilo and Stitch had been walking down the boardwalk, taking in the sunset.

"The perfect end to a perfect day, huh bugee-boo?" Stitch said as he and Lilo finished their ice cream.

"Yeah, the sunset is wonderful." She replied.

Just as the two rounded the corner, they saw Victoria coming down the way.

"Lilo, I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been all day?"

Lilo smiled. "On my first real date with Stitch."

Victoria's face lit up. "That's awesome! It's about time you two got serious. But I need to talk to you Lilo, in private."

"What's wrong Victoria?" Lilo said, somewhat against having to leave Stitch.

Victoria started to blush a little and drag her feet in the dirt. This indicated to Lilo that it was either about 'girl' stuff, or Richie. Probably Richie. "Ok Victoria, if it means that much to you." Then Lilo turned to Stitch. "Stitch, Victoria and I are going to go and talk for a few minutes."

Now Stitch didn't like this idea either, but Victoria was Lilo's only human friend, and besides, it would just be for a few minutes. "That's ok, I'll wait here."

"You're the best Stitch." Lilo said as she put her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Be right back."

As Lilo and Victoria wandered away, Stitch decided he would go get a soda from a machine while he waited. He was pretty sure that Victoria was talking about Richie. In the past few months, he and Lilo had had some luck with the fledgling couple, up to the point that they got Victoria to admit her feelings. Even with assurances that one liked the other, the two were still reluctant. But they'd get there.

As Stitch came up to the soda machine, something caught his eye. He looked over at the nearby bench. He did a double take. Was that an experiment? He looked it over. It didn't look like any experiment he'd ever seen before, but if it was a new one (which meant Jumba was in BIG trouble); it certainly wasn't acting like one. It was sitting there having a conversation with a little boy.

_Wait a minute that has to be a new experiment. He looks a lot like 627, but I have to admit, the horn's a nice touch. But what is he doing? He's just sitting there talking to that little kid._ Stitch then remembered the little boy that Lilo had mentioned. _That must be the little boy that suggested Lilo's experiment name. What on Earth are they talking about?_

Just then someone walked up behind him. "What ya looking at, Cous?"

Stitch jumped. He turned around to see Sparky. "Oh, hey Sparky."

"Why you so jumpy? You aren't looking at other girls are you? Afraid Lilo had caught you?"

Normally Stitch would have let Sparky have it, but he was still occupied with the new experiment, so he just let Sparky off with a verbal threat. "Shut up Sparky, don't even suggest that."

Sparky backed up a little. "Whoa, sorry. But what are you looking at?" He looked past Stitch to see Siron and Chance in the middle of trying to figure out Siron's name. Sparky rolled his eyes. "So much for him not being seen, the little dork."

This got Stitch's attention. "Little dork? Sparky, have you met this experiment?"

"Yeah, and I wouldn't worry you head off about the little wuss, he's Jumba's new apprentice."

"But he is Experiment 628?" Stitch asked, although the answer was obvious.

"Yeah, and if you want my opinion, I think he may be broken." Sparky said as he turned to the soda machine.

"What do you mean, broken?" Stitch said, not wanting to confront an experiment that may be unpredictable."

Another voice answered him. "Don't listen to Sparky; he's just mad because 628 makes him and most of the other male experiments look like brutes." Clip said as she came out of the restroom.

"Wait a minute, you mean he's a polite experiment? On purpose?" Stitch said in amazement.

"Yep, and I'm willing to bet he was born good." Clip replied.

Stitch turned back to watch the new experiment. After a few minutes, it got up and bid the boy goodbye, and walked off. The whole time it didn't do ANYTHING normal experiments did. It sat patiently, no fidgeting or interrupting. It didn't do anything rude. It didn't even pick it's nose with it's tongue (or at all, for that matter). It was completely well behaved, with no reason to be at all.

After 628 left, Stitch summarized his conclusion. "Are we sure he isn't malfunctioning?"

"See, that's what I said." Sparky said as he turned to Clip.

Clip rolled her eyes. "Do you think he would still be active if something was wrong? Don't you think Jumba would have fixed it? He isn't a destructive experiment guys, he was meant to assist Jumba with lab work."

"You have a point. Then why was he talking to that kid?" Stitch said as he got a soda.

"Maybe he wanted someone to talk to?" Clip suggested.

"And why wasn't that kid freaked out?" Sparky asked.

Stitch answered as he opened his soda. "Lilo told me about that kid. She said he makes her look normal."

"Yeah, that'd explain it." Sparky said as he took a sip of soda.

At that moment Lilo and Victoria decided to rejoin the group.

"Hey Stitch, anything interesting happen while I was gone?" Lilo asked as she came up to him.

"Aww, nothing much, just a new…" Sparky said, as Clip covered his mouth.

"Huh, why did you cover Sparky's mouth?" Lilo asked.

"Cause he's probably going to say something stupid or inappropriate, like he has been all day." Clip replied.

"Okayyy." _And Jason thinks I'm a control freak. _Lilo thought just as she noticed the boy on the bench. "Hey, that's that kid."

Victoria turned to see who Lilo was talking about. "Oh, Chance? What about him?"

Lilo then told Victoria of her encounter with Chance. Victoria just giggled. "Yep, that sounds like Chance."

"How do you know Chance Victoria?" Stitch asked as he crumpled his empty soda can.

"Oh, Chance and his family live on my street, a couple houses down from me. They moved in about a year ago. To tell you the truth, I think there's something wrong with him, poor kid."

"What's the matter with him?" Lilo asked.

"No one's for sure, not even his parents. He tends to space out at times, and he likes to stare at the sky a lot. He talk to himself, like someone else is there and sometimes he just knows things, well, that a little kid wouldn't know."

"You think he has ESP?" Lilo asked.

"Well, the Gleesons haven't had any reports of objects flying around by themselves yet, but maybe." Victoria replied.

"Let's not worry about it." Lilo said. "Besides, it's getting late."

It had been several hours since Siron had returned to the ship, unaware that he had been found out. (Fortunately, Clip had convinced Stitch that telling Lilo was a BAD idea, since she had freaked out the last two times that Jumba made a new experiment (627 and the serum)). He was looking over Jumba's files and journals, looking for ANYTHING that would indicate what might have caused the shift in Jumba's behavior. He was having no luck at all, and he was beginning to think he might never figure out his purpose.

Just above him, in the shadows, Stitch watched him silently, trying to figure out what this new experiment was truly capable of. So far, Sparky and Clip's assumptions had proven true, the experiment had nothing but look through files all night. But something was still intriguing about it: the fact that it seemed to be looking for something. From what Stitch could gather, 628 was looking for information on of all things, itself. This was strange in the fact that experiments are programmed with all knowledge relating to themselves and their abilities, so what could 628 be looking for?

At that moment Nani called out from the house. "Stitch, wherever you are, its time for bed, you have school in the morning." This distracted Stitch and he knocked over small opaque container. Siron turned around to see the source of the noise, but Stitch had hidden himself well enough to be overlooked at first glance. Then Siron turned his attention to the contents of the container. Inside were several small machine parts, and one thing that caught the dark-blue experiment's eye: a data chip.

Siron walked over and starting picking up the parts, but closed the container before putting the chip in it.

"Why was this chip hidden in that box of parts? Maybe this is what I have been searching for." He said as he inserted the chip into the computer.

A screen came up asking for a password. "A password? I suppose this might take longer than I thought." Siron said as he began keying on the computer.

Stitch was about to leave, figuring it would take all night for 628 to crack the code, when he heard the 'ding' that noted the correct password. He turned back around to take a look on what was on the file.

Both were in for a shock.

Siron read the file, entitled "Project LG". In it he discovered the formulas for creating an experiment, but with one difference: it used a host organism. This was absolutely astounding to him, but it was only the beginning. He accessed the progress notes, and began to learn what had been going on in Jumba's mind at the time. This apparently was a project Jumba had begun after toying with the thought of what "Little Girl" would be like as an experiment. What had begun as a mere theory blossomed into a project to see if such a conversion was actually possible. The notes were a bit vague on why Jumba persisted with the project, but the outcome was very detailed. The visual schematics part of the file was damaged, probably because it had been in a parts box, but the power data was unharmed. Siron was about ready to pass this off as one of Jumba's more daring, yet unfeasible, projects, when he found one last file. It was encrypted, and this drew the experiment's attention even closer. The encryption was easy enough to break, although a bit difficult for one of Jumba's encryptions. It was a diary.

_08.21.10002 _(Earth Month, Earth Day, Galatatic Year)

_Project is completed, and yet more troubles my mind. Now am wondering, if this is to be working, what about 626? I know should not be so foolish, but talk with Pleakly has reveled insight into why I am wanting to make such ridiculous things: I care for both Little Girl and 626, and am wanting them to be happy. But is pointless to worry now, will continue later._

Siron wonders to himself why that this file was encrypted so heavily, if it was just progress notes. The next entry provided him his answer, to more than one of his questions.

_08.23.10002_

_I am not knowing where to begin, am at such a loss of words. Yesterday can be described as nothing less than nightmare, and I am at fault. LG serum lived up to all expectations, and for this I would be proud, but it nearly cause not only my destruction, but destruction of its purpose. It is being best that I go over what has been happening these past few days. _

_It all was starting when Little Girl surprised me in ship on the morning of LG serum's completion. To humor her and not alert her to serum's purpose, I was locking serum in safe only she could open. Funny how what seems to be good idea turns out to be one's worst mistake. Well not worst, serum was worst idea, too damn powerful._

_Anyways, same day 626 ceased relations with 624 (made 624 too much like ex-wife, so was not surprised). This angered 624, and next day, 624's actions caused horrible chain reaction. To be getting 626 away from Little Girl and back to her, she used song to try and get Little Girl in trouble. Had 624 been taking into account the theory of mental polarity, as well as Little Girl's intelligence, would have known outcome could only be bad. Was not bad however, was catastrophic. Little Girl disabled 624 and destroyed house. Then stole things from my ship, including LG serum, but was not knowing at the time. We were eventually tracking evil Little Girl to ship, only to be tricked and knocked out. When we awoke, we were at her mercy._

Siron continued to read on, and with each passage he became more and more horrified. Many of the experiments were designed to be evil, but nothing Jumba made could match this viciousness of this creature. She preceded to torture her family, plot to destroy the universe, and steal the freedom from those she loved most. According to the diary, the fact that she even became good again was a miracle. Siron was now sure that this is what caused Jumba to turn from his evil ways forever. The passage ended with Jumba swearing that he would make amends for the tragedy that he thought he caused. The next diary entry made how clear.

_08.26.10002_

_I am knowing what I must do. I must prevent this from ever happening again. Should not ever happen, Little Girl is immune now, but still it haunts me. What if? Many of these haunt my mind, and are warranting final answer. This final answer will come in form of old project, one started years ago, but now ready for completion. Transfer finished about one month ago, after all data was complied. But now I must add new purpose, or my mind will never be at rest._

The diary was blank after that, but it didn't need to say anymore. Siron had found the answer, why Jumba had changed his ways, and why he had another function. As to his name, he had an idea. "If she was so powerful, then what was put in me to counteract? Whatever it is, I am more sure than ever that my name fits. Siron."

Siron ejected the disk and returned it to its container. Meanwhile Stitch had scurried away, his mind on what he had read, and what 628, named Siron, had said. The fact that he was even named that worried Stitch, but he also realized it worried Siron even more. As for what Jumba had written, was it possible? Could Lilith really return? And if she did, could he take it? If Lilo was still herself (which Stitch prayed she would be), could she take it? And most importantly, could Siron really stop her?

As he came into the house, Nani and Lilo were talking about the date. Both sounded excited. As Stitch took human form, Lilo turned to him. "What's wrong Stitch, you look worried."

"I'm okay Lilo. I'm just tired." Stitch replied as he headed to his room.

Lilo didn't buy a word of it. She got up and followed him to his room. She got there just in time to see his reaction at the new addition to his room. "When did I get a bunk bed?"

Lilo giggled. "How else am I suppose to sleep in here, on the floor?"

Stitch jerked his head around. "Wait a minute, you're sleeping here? Won't you get in trouble?"

Nani walked up to the couple. "I spoke with Cobra and told him about Lilo's nightmares. He was against lifting the restriction at first, but I convinced him. As long as no one see the two of you sharing a room, we won't have any problems. Lilo will just keep her stuff upstairs and come down here to sleep with you."

Learning this caused Stitch's heart to lighten. Lilo would get to sleep with him every night again, which was great news. Stitch gave Nani a big hug and then went to get ready for bed. He came back to see that Lilo had claimed the top bunk.

"Hey, I wanted the top bunk!" Stitch cried.

"Too bad, first come, first serve." Lilo retorted.

Stitch smiled. "Oh yeah, we'll see about that."

A massive pillow fight ensued, Stitch throwing a pillow up at Lilo, Lilo catching it and sticking out her tongue, Stitch climbing up after her with another pillow, only to get hit in the face several times. The two traded blows for about another minute before Nani yelled at them to go to sleep. Lilo and Stitch called a truce and climbed in bed. Just before Lilo went to sleep, she whispered to Stitch. "We have a big day tomorrow, so let's get some rest, ok?"

"Yeah, big prank tomorrow." Stitch replied.

"And your last for a while, got it?" Lilo said as she turned to get comfortable.

"And yours, remember?" Stitch shot back, reminding her that she had agreed to help.

"Yeah, and mine too. Good Night." Lilo said with a yawn.

"Good Night Lilo." Stitch replied as he laid his head down. His thoughts were still on what he had seen and heard earlier. _I guess I should confront Siron, so he knows that I know about him. Then we need to figure out just what he is capable of, and what might cause Lilith's return. All without Lilo finding out, I don't want to worry her anymore. Lilith scares her enough as is. But I guess it will have to wait until after tomorrow, and Operation Splash Down. _

Clearing his mind, Stitch finally was able to relax, and soon he was asleep.

But all was not well. In another corner of the galaxy, Hamsterville is applying the final calculations to his tool of revenge. "Soon, all will fear the name Jacque Von Hamsterville! Foolish little girl, she tried to betray me. But the ensuing battle with 626 garnered me a prize, brought to me by a loyal robo-drone. And with it, I will rule the universe!"

In his hand is a black substance, the remains of a cell feather. And behind him, in a glass tube, the nightmare is reborn.

End Chapter 4

Next Chapter

Operation: Splash Down


	5. Chapter 5

Author Notes: If anyone wants to email me, they can. Sorry for not updating sooner.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 5: Operation Splash Down

"Good day Superintendent Chambers, how are you this morning?" Principle Tanner said as he greeted his boss at the front drive.

"Good day Tanner. I trust everything is ready for my visit?" Chambers replied as he stepped out of his car.

"Yes sir! I have had the entire school grounds patrolled for any signs of mischief. Nothing will go wrong today." Tanner replied in an uneasy voice.

"I'm sure it won't. And for the last time, stop apologizing for the sprinkler system malfunction, new fangled security systems like that one always go haywire." Chambers said as he straightened his tie.

"I still believe it was the work of some of the students. The fact that it happened on the first day of school is just too suspicious. Not to mention the other various 'accidents' that have occurred as of late."

The old superintendent just sighed. "Andrew my boy, you are being paranoid. If it was something like someone's underpants on the flagpole, or itching powder in gym shorts, I'd agree with you. But faulty sprinklers and glitchy computers aren't pranks, just shoddy workmanship."

"But sir, the computers were flashing the same thing over and over again. True, the techs weren't even sure what it was, and it wasn't in any language familiar to the staff, but the fact of the matter is…"

"The fact of the matter is that it was nothing but random gibberish. 'Meega Nala Questa' is not in any language. I had my speech specialist check."

"Of course sir, I guess it was just a series of mechanical failures." the principle agreed, defeated.

"Well, now that that's over with, I think the rest of the school board has arrived. So let's begin our tour of your school."

What they didn't realize was at that moment they were being watched. "Okay, the targets are within range, prepare to fire on my signal." Lilo said from her position on the roof.

Meanwhile Knuckles was in the restroom with a remote control held out the window. "Ready on this end."

The principle and the four members of the board had just made there way into the front courtyard. "It sure is a nice day. Tell me Principle Tanner, do you ever let the children eat outside?" asked one of the board members, a man in his early 50's with a green sportscoat and a tie with golf balls on it.

"Oh sure, we normally allow the children to eat their lunches in the picnic area next to the playground." Principle Tanner replied..

"Is that such a good idea, seeing as that you have had some disciplinary troubles in the past few months? What if some of the children try to sneak off?" another member, a woman in her early 40's said as she looked over the groundskeeping.

"Mina, I have already had this discussion with Principle Tanner, those 'incidents' were no more than malfunctions. New-fangled computers, in my day…"

As Superintendent Chambers continued to rant on about the old days, Lilo gave the signal. "Okay, now."

Knuckles pressed the button on the remote, and the cannons fired the paint balloons high into the air. Lilo watched as they flew over her.

On the ground, Principle Tanner looked up just in time to see the incoming balloons, but too late to do anything but nearly faint. The balloons exploded and paint went everywhere. Principle Tanner was covered in red paint, while the members of the board were anywhere from having just paint on his trousers (the guy in the golf tie), to having a face full of paint. (Superintendent Chambers).

Principle Tanner saw the look on the boards faces. "I'm going to be fired, aren't I?"

"No." Chambers replied. "But I believe you now. You DO have a problem here."

Meanwhile Lilo had finished filming the entire thing, giggling as she packed away the camera. She then sprouted her wings, and after making sure it was all clear she flew down to the ground behind the building. She ran inside and stuffed the camera in her locker.

Filming the incident wasn't necessary, since Stitch, Richie, and Jason had been watching from the classroom window. And by the time Mina Jamerson stopped screaming and cursing, the entire classroom was paying attention. As well as every classroom on that side of the building. The laughter didn't make her any calmer, and Keoni blushed in embarrassment as he listened to the curses coming out of his mother's mouth.

While two of the other board members were trying to calm her down, Principle Tanner was apologizing profusely to the superintendent. "I'm so sorry Superintendent Chambers, I'll make sure that the hooligans responsible for this are found and expelled."

"It's alright Tanner, children will be children. Besides, I have a friend who might be able to help with your problem."

"A friend? I'm sure I can handle this myself if it means…"

"No, no, I'm not getting the state board of education involved, last thing we need is a bunch of busybodies. But it seems that your pranksters are a bit smarter than your average delinquents."

"I know who they are sir, if I could just prove it." Tanner pleaded.

"No, Principal Tanner, I think you need a new vice principal. Your former one resigned a month ago, didn't she?"

"Um, yes sir she did. Who do you have in mind?"

"Let's just say he's the one I like to call when things go wrong."

It was right after school, and the gang was brimming with energy. They hadn't talked about their prank all day, as to not give themselves away, but now Jason was about ready to explode. "Oh man, that has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen. Did you see the way that one woman completely wigged out? Awesome."

"Yeah, and Lilo got it all on tape." Stitch said, motioning to the camera bag.

"How did she get on the roof anyway? That door is usually locked." Knuckles asked as he put his book bag on his bike.

Stitch was about to make up an excuse, but Jason came to his rescue. "Who cares? Janitor probably left it unlocked. All that matters is the choice footage we got."

"Yeah, and that Principal Tanner never sees it." Knuckles added.

"Yeah, and that. We need to get down to the forest and remove those cannons before someone goes looking for them." Jason said as he hopped on his bike.

"I'm going to look for Lilo; I didn't see her come out." Stitch said as he handed the camera to Knuckles.

"Okay, but don't take too long. I think Richie is already started cleaning up, and he might start to get worried if we take too long." Knuckles said as he raised his kickstand and took off after Jason.

Meanwhile, Richie was waiting at the launch point, shuffling his feet. "Where are they, they should have been here ten minutes ago. Unless they got detention at the last minute. Again."

Just then Richie heard footsteps coming down the path. He turned around to see Principal Tanner standing on the edge of the clearing.

"Well, I never figured you'd be in on this, Richie. I figured I'd find Jason and Alex, and maybe that blue-haired kid, but not you. I'm very disappointed."

Richie was frozen in fear. Horrible thoughts flashed thru his mind. He knew he was going to be expelled, at the very least. Or worse, he could be arrested and sent to juvenile hall, where he would be beat up every day. And what would his parents think of him?

"Now Richie, I know that you weren't the only one behind this. And I bet Jason and Alex pressured you into it. If you just tell me what I want to know, I'll make sure that the superintendent goes lightly on you. Probably no more than a couple days suspension."

Richie snapped back into reality. Jason, Knuckles, and Chris were his best friends. He swore he would never tell on them. But he was frightened and about ready to cry, when he heard someone shout out.

"Hey, Principal Tanner!"

Richie opened his eyes to see Lilo coming from behind the trees. Principal Tanner spun around. "What is the meaning of this, young lady? You'd better have a really good excuse for yelling at me." Tanner said as he looked the interloper in the eyes, in an intimidation attempt.

Big mistake. Suddenly Principal Tanner's face became blank, as Lilo activated her control ability. She smiled slightly at her success, and then spoke to the now mind-numbed principal. "You feel tired. You are going to go the office and take a nap." Then a look of concentration formed on Lilo's face as she erased the principal's memories of the past half-hour. The principal then walked back up the path toward the school, just as he had been told.

Lilo half-expected to turn and see Richie faint, but he was standing there, not with a look of horror, but more surprise, which meant what Lilo was afraid of: Richie was frightened of her because of her experiment powers. She frowned slightly as she looked at the ground. "How long have you known?"

"Since the first day of school, when you flew away with Chris. You aren't going to erase my memory are you?" Richie said as he gulped.

"No Richie, I had a feeling you knew." Lilo said in a depressing tone. She knew she was in A LOT of trouble now. She had just used her powers, in public, with someone else watching her. If Cobra found out, he would go ballistic.

"I won't tell anyone Lilo, if that's what you are worried about. I don't really think anyone would believe me. But I need to know something."

"What's that?" Lilo asked looking up at him.

"Is Chris an alien too?"

Lilo looked back down at the ground again. Everything was falling apart at the seams. Richie knew now, how many more people would learn? How long before their secret was known to everyone?

Lilo's silence was answer enough. "Have you always been this way?" Richie asked, still instinctively keeping his distance.

"No, not always. At least not me. It's a long story." She said, not taking her eyes off the ground. She heard someone coming, and her head shot up.

At that moment Knuckles and Jason came running down the path. "Are you two okay, we just saw Tanner nearby. We figured he might how found our launching spot." Jason panted, clearly out of breath.

Knuckles however seemed to have no problem with breathing, and calmly looked the area over. "It doesn't seem like Tanner was here, we must have lucked out."

Lilo looked nervously at Richie, afraid he'd tell them what really happened.

"Nope, guess we were lucky. But let's get these cannons out of here before he does show up!" Richie said, smiling softly, letting his friend know he had no intention of letting anyone else on to her and Stitch's secret. Lilo became less tense as she started to help Jason, who had begun disassembling one of the cannons.

Moments later, Stitch finally reached the clearing. Jason turned to face him as he came off the path. "All that looking for nothing, huh? Lilo was here the whole time, helping Richie get a head start. Now let's hurry and get these bad boys outta here before Tanner comes back around."

"Tanner was looking around here earlier? How are we sure he didn't find anything?" Stitch said as he hefted one of the cannons barrels over his shoulder.

"Don't you think he would be having been here waiting for us?" Richie said as he disassembled the last cannon.

"Yeah." Jason added. Then he stopped to think for a minute and then turned to Knuckles. "Hey, Knuckles, was Principal Tanner acting a little funny to you?"

Knuckles face also took on a thoughtful look. "You're right Jason. He walked right past us, but he didn't stop to question us, or even look at us. It was like he was in a trance."

Stitch attention immediately turned to Lilo, and the look made Lilo even more nervous than before. "Oh, it was probably just shock. I mean, we did just make a fool of him in front of his bosses." she said as she laughed nervously. Jason and Knuckles appeared to accept her answer and went back to work. Stitch on the other hand, still stared at Lilo, apparently not buying a word of it.

Richie then piped in. "He didn't look too good when I saw him in hallway."

"Well, then that's our answer Knuckles, poor Tanner was out of it." Jason said.

While the group finished clean-up, Richie watched Lilo and Stitch. Stitch seemed upset with her and Richie figured out why: apparently they weren't supposed to use their powers in public. And it was all his fault, she had used them to save his bacon from the fryer. He knew that now was the time, he had to confront Stitch about what had happened earlier, to keep this from harming his friend's relationship and him having to live with the guilt.

As the group was getting ready to haul the stuff away, Richie grabbed Stitch on the shoulder. Stitch turned around. "What is it Richie?"

"I need to talk to you in private for a moment. Is that okay?" Richie asked in a slightly worried tone.

"Sure," Stitch said as he turned back to the others. "Hey Jason, Richie's having trouble with his wagon. I'm going to take a look at it a minute, we'll catch up."

"Sure, just don't take too long." Jason said as he and the other started to haul stuff away.

As soon as they were out of sight, Stitch turned to Richie, who was starting to look anxious. But before Richie could say anything, Stitch spoke, in a soft and calm voice. "Lilo tranced Principal Tanner to get you out of trouble, didn't she?"

Richie drug his foot in the ground as he answered. "He snuck up on me. He said that if I turned you guys in, he'd go easy on me. I was afraid, but I would rather get expelled than lose my best friends. Then Lilo yelled at him, and when he looked at her, she used her powers on him to make him forget what he saw. But how did you know? And why did you look like you were mad at her?"

Stitch smiled slightly. "I wasn't really mad at her, it was more like she was being a hypocrite, telling me not to use my power in public, and then using hers. After turning to look at you, and how shook up you were, I figured out what happened."

Stitch then turned his back. "Did she tell you…"

"No, I asked, but she didn't answer. My dad said, a lot of times, that's as good as a yes. But I promised I would never tell."

Stitch turned around, a small smile on his face. "Thanks Richie. It's means a lot."

"Stitch, are you, you know, the alien that Lilo passed off as her dog for years?"

"Yeah, I am. It's funny how this one last summer changed my life and Lilo's forever." Stitch said as he grabbed the handle on his wagon.

"Would you tell me about it?" Richie asked as he followed suit.

"I'll give you the gist of it. You see, after spending years close together, Lilo and I started to fall in love. Jumba, my creator, made a serum so she could be an experiment too, then he made one so I could pass for a human."

"Oh," Richie said, knowing that there was more to it than that. But he didn't want to bring it up. He might have been imagining things, but he could have sworn that the moment Stitch mentioned Lilo's serum, he cringed. He wondered if there was more to it, something bad. He could only wonder and guess at the reason, but maybe one day Stitch would be able to tell him the whole story.

Meanwhile, at the small bench on the walkway, sat a dark blue experiment and a little boy. Chance had been sitting patiently as Siron told him of his findings the previous night. After he finished telling him of what he found out, Chance replied. "Yeah, I think that would be enough to do it. But I wonder what he was so worried about; you said that Lilo was now immune to Angel's song."

"Well, I have theorized on that, and have come to several possible answers. The first is that she is just immune to the powers of the other experiments. This does not however make her immune to all forms of mind-control."

"So you think you might have anti-mind control powers?" Chance said as he reached into his backpack and took out some candy. "Ooo, mommy packed me gummy bears!"

Siron looked at the little boy in amusement for a moment. It was amazing how small children could get excited over things like candy. Chance may have been slightly more mature in certain matters, but Siron could tell that in other areas he was still a seven-year old. "I do not believe I my name would be warranted by such a harmless, yet essential, function."

"Yeah, you're right." Chance said as he bit the head off of a red gummy bear. "He more likely gave you powers to beat her up, and don't think he'd want to hurt the original."

"That was my second theory. Perhaps a clone could be made of her. However, a clone would be powerful, but not nearly as sadistic."

"And that's a bad thing?" Chance said as he flipped another gummy in the air and caught it in his mouth.

"Of course not, it is actually quite a good thing. But the clone would not have the memories of the original, so it would not have a reason to return to Earth."

"Unless somebody sends it. And you don't know, the clone might be reborn with memories. Anything can happen." Chance then looked down at the bag of candies, held it over his head, and began to stuff as many of them into his mouth as he could.

"The chances of a clone having the memories of the original are extremely low unless the creator takes steps to have the memories implanted. Otherwise, it's extremely unlikely. And why are you stuffing those candies in your mouth?"

Chance turned to the alien and swallowed the gummies. "Cause its fun. Don't you like to have fun, Siron?"

"I, I know what fun is, at least the definition of the word. But I don't think I have ever done anything fun. Ever since I was activated, my life has been one question after another. I've been so focused on finding out the truth about myself, I haven't had time for anything else."

"Well, what do you think is fun?" Chance said as he dug into his backpack. "I think its fun to listen to music." The small boy pulled a device from his pack. "Here, this is one of my old mp3 players. I found it in my room the other day. My mom thinks it's gone, so I think it will be ok if you have it."

Siron took the small device from the boy's hand. "Thank you." He looked the device. "This is the first gift I have ever received."

"You're welcome. Hey, I think I have an idea. Maybe you should, you know, spy on Lilo and Stitch. Maybe if you watch them long enough, they might revel some information on Lilith."

"Lilith? I don't understand what you are talking about." Siron said, puzzled that the boy had called the evil version of Lilo by a name. How did he know that was her name, and was it?

"Oh, I overheard her mumbling to herself, and that was one of the few words I made out. It sounds evil, and she looked kinda freaked out when she said it."

"You seem to have a knack for find information in the strangest of ways."

"It's not strange. When you listen closely to people, you learn lots of things. My friend told me that."

"Oh, so I should listen in on what Lilo and Stitch are saying? But I'm not suppose to be seen by either of them."

As before, we faced with a difficult question, Chance started concentrating. "Let me think about it for a second." After a few moments of silence he spoke up again. "Maybe she has a diary? And if she doesn't, I'm sure that one-eyed alien that likes to wear dresses does."

"An event of such a magnitude would of course be recorded. But how to get in the house undetected?"

"You live with a genius scientist, doesn't he have a cloaking device or something?"

"He does I think. I think it is in storage, next to his time board. Thank you for your advice." Siron said as he rose from his seat.

"You're welcome, but I gotta go home. I have to finish my homework before dinner or I don't get to play on the computer." Chance said as jumped off the bench and took off running. "See ya later. And good luck!"

Siron also took off for home, the small device his friend had given him in his hand. He knew he would have to take some chances to find the answers to what happened on that day, the event that lead to Jumba's change of heart and most importantly, his true purpose.

Richie had just arrived home, after an extremely long day. So much had happened. He helped paint bomb the school board, almost got expelled, and the most shocking thing, discovered his best friend was an alien. He had suspected it, but is was still almost overwhelming.

"Mom, I'm home!" Richie called out from the living room.

"Welcome home sweetie! I made a snack for you. It in the fridge." Mrs. Evans replied from the kitchen.

"Thanks mom. I'm going to my room and draw for a while, ok?"

"Ok dear, but remember to finish your homework."

"Yes ma'am." Richie said as he shut his bedroom door.

Richie set his backpack on the bed and went to his desk, only to have one more surprise.

"WHERE IS MY SKETCHBOOK?"

End Chapter 5

Next Chapter

A Diary, A Discovery, And A Disappointment


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

AN: Well, I've been gone quite a while. Between work and summer school, as well as another story I've been working on, this was kinda put a hold for a while. I can't promise the next chapter will come out any faster, since none of the above things have changed: I still have work and school, and my other fic tends to grab my attention and not let go for significant periods.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 6

A Diary, A Discovery, and A Disappointment

Richie tore thru his dresser drawers, franticly looking for his sketchbook. "Where is it, where did I put it? It has to be here some…" Richie's eye narrowed_. Myrtle. She took my sketchbook again! Well I won't let her destroy it this time._

Richie took off for the kitchen, only to see his mother stepping out the door. "Mom, where are you going?"

His mother turned around. "I'm just going to get my hair done. I shouldn't be too long. Now Richie, your sister is at a movie with her friends, so I expect you to watch over the house, ok?"

Richie sighed in relief; he knew he now had a chance to find his sketchbook without his mom or his sister interfering. "Ok Mom, I will."

As soon as his mother stepped outside the door and he heard the car pull away, he turned and stepped in front of a door with pink flowers and pictures of boy bands. "Ok Richie, take a deep breath. Going into my sister's room. If she finds anything out of place, she WILL kill me. Gotta be careful."

Richie slowly creaked the door open. His eyes were immediately assaulted with pink and white. "Man and Myrtle says I have bad taste. This room's walls almost blinded me. Well, better start looking."

Richie started to open his sister's dresser drawers. _Let's see, makeup._ He opened the next one. _T-shirts. What, her closet doesn't have enough space for all her clothes?_ He then opened the bottom drawer, and quickly slammed it shut. _Ahhh, my eyes! Underwear! Ok, calm down Richie. Get a hold of yourself._

Richie turned his attention to looking under Myrtle's bed when he noticed a notebook on Myrtle's vanity. "My sketchbook!" He ran over and picked it up. Quickly scanning the pages, he realized that everything was still there. His sister must not have had time to destroy it before she left. _I'm gonna have to hide this thing from now on.­ ­_

As he turned to leave, he noticed a small book sticking out of the pouch of one of Myrtle's stuffed animals. Curiosity got the better of him as he slowly removed the book. He only had to look at the first page to know what he had in his hands. _This is Myrtle's diary! Oh man, if she knew I looked in here, she wouldn't stop at killing me. _He closed the cover and was about to put it back when a thought hit him. _Still, it would only be fair. After all, as mean as she has been to me lately, it would be payback to learn a couple of HER secrets. _Richie cracked open the book and flipped to the first page. _Ok, I will only read the first couple of pages, then I'll put it back where I found it._

January 21, 2004

Dear Diary,

I don't believe it; I still don't have a date for the upcoming dance! This is my first dance ever, there is no way I can show up dateless, what would I look like to the other girls? But where to find a date?

Richie continued to read the diary entries, but since most of them were about the same subject, his sister trying to find a date, he was starting to get bored. _I guess I'll just read one more page. Man, Jason's right, my sister is a really shallow if all she thinks about is boys._

February 1

Dear Diary,

I should really go to my mom's meetings more often. I mean sure, they can be boring at times, but would you believe it, I found a date there! He's not everything I'd hoped for, but he is polite, and cute. I was sitting in the back of the room with the other girls when he came up and offered to get drinks for us from the table. Normally I'd be suspicious, but I knew his mother and that that was how she raised him. Why don't more mothers raise boys to be polite gentlemen? Anyway, when he came back, I asked if he wanted to sit with us, and the rest was all me and my charm. Oh, I forgot to tell you his name. It's…"

Richie went wide-eyed at the name he read on the page. "Jason Walbridge" He read aloud. _My sister and Jason dated? Oh man, that explains why they hate each other so much. _He had often heard Jason complain about how his relationship with his last girlfriend was an absolute nightmare, but Richie had no idea he was talking about Myrtle. _There break up must have been really bad. I don't have much time though, so I guess I better skip to it._

Richie scanned the next few pages, all of which seemed to be about how wonderful his sister and Jason's relationship seemed to be. _The way Myrtle talks about Jason, you'd think they were soulmates or something. What could have caused this break-up?_ But, about two weeks worth of entries later, and Richie found his answer.

February 14

I can't believe it! So much for being a gentleman. Jason and his stupid friend pulled the meanest prank on me and the girls, right in front of everyone. I hate him. I hate him, I hate him! Why would he do that to me? Weirdlo said it was because I said I owned him and he had to listen to me. I know that this was her fault! Just because she doesn't have a boyfriend. Well, I'll show her. I know the truth. I know her family is nothing but a bunch of freaks. Alien freaks. And when I get the proof I need, I'll get my revenge.

_Oh man, Myrtle knows too? I just hope she doesn't know the whole truth, or Stitch and Lilo might have a problem. I'd better find out just how much she knows._

Richie scanned the pages of Myrtle's diary, and found a couple of entries, most of which were complaints that she had never gotten any evidence. Then Richie reached a page, and stopped. Not because it mentioned Lilo or her family, but because it mentioned him.

July 30

Dear Diary

I learned today that Dad was headed off to Iraq. I'm not worried though, nobody could hurt Daddy, he's invincible. Unlike my twin brother Richie. I haven't written much about him, out of sight, out of mind, I guess, but I'll start with this: he is the biggest wuss on the face of the earth. I figured that spending all his time with the Marines would have straightened him out, but I guess they have better things to do. Oh well, I guess it's up to me then. Richie will be here tomorrow morning, and I'm going to make sure he doesn't embarrass me. I'll have to think on exactly how, but getting him to grow a spine would be a good start. Well, that and maybe get him a girlfriend, and I have 3 to choose from for him.

Richie almost gagged. _That's why Myrtle always wants me to hang out with her and her friends._

Richie continued to look thru her diary for notes on Lilo or Stitch, not really caring about his sister's "progress notes" on him. But when he reached the near end of the book, he noticed Victoria's name, enough to draw his attention.

August 12

Dear Diary

It looks like I'm going to have more trouble with Richie than I thought. Today he had a run-in with Victoria, Weirdlo's best, and only, friend. I saw the way he blushed when he looked at her, and I WILL NOT allow it. There is no way I'll let Richie even hang out with anyone that has anything to do with Lilo, much less have a crush on her best friend. And it's not because I don't like Victoria; I'm not too fond of her, but she's better than Lilo. It the fact that she's so close to that freak and those aliens. (Not to mention one lives with her.) I will not allow her to put Richie in danger, or allow him to contaminate this house with Weirdlo behavior; his own is already bad enough.

Richie closed the book and put it back. He'd read enough to know that Victoria was right, Myrtle was delusional. _She thinks she's helping me? What about all those times she made fun of me in class? How was that helping? _

Suddenly Richie heard the sound of a door opening. He snapped his head around to hear voices. "That movie was pathetic, not his best work at all."

"Yeah, you're right. It stunk."

"Uh huh."

"You said it."

Richie went wide-eyed. _Oh no, Myrtle's home. I have to get outta here or she'll kill me for sure!_

Richie looked quickly around the room. He knew if he just walked out the door Myrtle would find out where he'd been. _The window. I can go out the window, but I'd better act fast._

Richie hurried over to the window and raised it. He quickly leapt out just as he heard the turning of the handle on the door. _That was close. I'd better get out of here for awhile._ Richie figured he'd go and see what Jason was up to. And to get some answers out of him.

After visiting with his friend, Siron returned to the ship. He stopped in his tracks when he heard voices coming from the ship.

"Ok, ok Jumba I believe you. It's not a dangerous experiment. But why all the secrecy, why are you hiding him?" It was a voice Siron recognized as Pleakly. Had he let himself be discovered?

"My question is being why you are not keeping nosy eye out of my things. I am hiding him because of Galactic Councilwoman." Jumba reply in a whisper. This caused Siron to breathe a sigh of relief. Pleakly had been looking thru some of Jumba notes, and must have come across something referencing him.

"And why is an apprentice experiment named after the legendary peacemaker, who's ending the Great War created the Galactic Alliance?"

Jumba became apprehensive. "Well, I like the name. Has presence."

Pleakly didn't buy it. "That's the biggest load of bologna I've ever heard. Since when have you ever named anything something just because you liked the name? I'll tell you, never!"

"Fine, fine. I am giving up." Jumba said, exasperated. "But you must be telling no one what I am about to be telling you, not even 628 himself. Promise?"

"Why can't I tell Siron? What is so important that you have to keep from even him?"

Pleakly replied, now extremely confused.

"If you will be being quiet for one moment, will tell you." Jumba then turned his head and sighed. "Originally created 628 to ultimate pupil. Perfect student to be caring on evil geniousing after I pass away. But then thing with Little Girl happened."

Pleakly went wide-eyed. "You mean?"

"Yes, One-Eye One. I mean Lilith. Even though tragedy was adverted, I knew possible that something else could occur. Any number of possibilities could be going wrong."

"What are you saying? That Lilo could turn evil again?" Pleakly said worriedly.

"Or be mind-controlled, or cloned. Even run risk of someone stealing notes and redoing experiment. I had to have a back-up plan."

"And Siron was your back-up plan. He wouldn't hurt Lilo if she, you know, went bad again, would he?"

Jumba threw his arms up in the air. "That is being point, am not wanting for little girl to go bad. And now…" Jumba said sadly. "Am not wanting secondary function on 628 to activate."

"What wrong Jumba? What happens if he activates it?"

"Sigh. I am afraid it will override his personality. I added it in fear, and did not check to see how it would react to original programming."

"What do you mean?"

Jumba reached for his computer and took a disk off the table. "Here, let me be showing you." Jumba inserted the disk and brought up a program. "You see, 628 was not originally designed for combat, there for has a passive nature program." Jumba then clicked on other program. "And this is the function I added just before activation."

"Oh, how pretty. He's all shiny and stuff. But how did he get that…"

Jumba cut him off. "Never mind that. The problem is that this form adds a combat program. And I didn't design original programming to support it. Am not sure what could happen if it activates."

"So what are you saying? Can't you fix him?" Pleakly said as he looked over the program.

"I can't be fixing what am not know is wrong. I will not be knowing what is wrong until program activates, and then damage could already have been done."

Meanwhile, all of this had come to a shock to Siron. Unlike Pleakly, Siron understood perfectly what Jumba meant. The secondary function came with combat programming, which would be necessary for him to use the function to it's fullest. The problem was that his original programming would be significantly altered, perhaps to the extent he would no longer be who he is. Siron did not like the thought of having his love of knowledge replaced with a lust for battle.

This was indeed irony. Siron had thought that finding out about his secret programming would easy his worries, but they only made them worse. He didn't want to change, not into something like that. He liked who he was. But what could he do? He didn't know what would trigger the programming. He was flying blind.

While he had been paying attention to the discussion between Jumba and Pleakly, he inadvertently knocked over some parts stacked up beside him. "What was that?" Jumba said as he turned to face the direction of the source of the noise, and saw the last thing he wanted to see at that moment. "628. Listen, I can explain."

However, Siron didn't stick around long enough to hear Jumba. He took off running. _I know I should let Jumba explain, but right now I don't know who or what to believe. He's already lied to me several times. I need someplace to think, someplace illogical, someplace Jumba wouldn't think to look for me._

So he ran to the only place he could think of: the bench where he would normally met Chance after he got off from school. He started to slow down as he approached the bench, realizing that Chance wasn't there. Which was kinda of disappointing, his childish antics were amusing. As Siron sat down on the bench, he thought to himself _I wonder why Chance always comes here. _It didn't take long for him to figure it out. The bench had a great view of the ocean and a pair of palm trees gave it ample shade.

He sat there, on that bench, for what seemed like hours. He had begun to drift off to sleep when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, an experiment. His became curious when he realized that he did not recognize it. That meant it was a new experiment, but he was number 628, and he knew what 627 looked like. It was her, the reason he was given the extra programming by Jumba. _Lilo. So that is what she looks like in her experiment form. It's because of her that Jumba gave me the untested program. She's why I might turn into a monster!_

However, as Siron thought about it, it wasn't her fault at all. She didn't ask to become evil, 624 had done it out of jealousy. In fact, knowing what he did about psychology, she was most likely deeply scarred by the event. He wasn't sure what drove him to do it, but he rose from the bench and made his way toward the ocean blue experiment. _Jumba might deactivate me for this, but Lilo helped the other experiments find purposes, find reasons not to fight or destroy. Perhaps she can help me as well._

Lilo starred out into the open ocean, watching the sun on its journey beneath the rolling waves. She was in experiment form, in broad daylight, but she didn't care. She'd been through a lot today. Her and boyfriend's secret wasn't so secret anymore, as now she had found out Richie Evans knew. How long before the others figured it out? Jason wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to noticing what was going on around him, but Alex was just like his uncle, and it was only a matter of time before he too found out, if he didn't already know.

And if his uncle found out about today, well, she didn't even want to think about what would happen. Forget Stitch losing his human identity, they'd be lucky if Cobra didn't have them both locked away in some government facility or worse. Lilo knew she and Stitch were a HUGE security risk to the alien cover up. If she and Stitch were discovered, how long before all the other experiments were? She didn't want to think what would happen if their were discovered, it might cause planet wide panic.

And if THAT wasn't enough to ruin her day, Lilo was going out to the ship to see if Stitch was there, since he wasn't in the house, when she overheard Pleakly and Jumba talking about what she soon discovered was a new experiment. At first she was angered by the fact that Jumba had created another experiment, especially after what happened with her. She was fully ready to charge in and go off on him, when she heard Jumba mention the experiment's function. She was intrigued enough to wait and listen to hear everything she could before confronting him. Turns out she would have been better off just confronting him then. It turns out the experiment was designed to serve as an apprentice to Jumba, so that his work would continue on after he had died. But shortly before it was completed, Jumba added a new function. Now he was worried that the new function, a combat form, would override the experiment's original programming, changing who it was. And it was her fault. He added the function after Lilith. A tear fell down her face as she then transformed and took off. She had drifted through the sky aimlessly for an hour at least, with just thought on her mind: she had ruined someone else's life.

Now, as she stood looking over the sea, she realized what it all meant: Lilith could return. Lilo didn't know how, but the fact that Jumba had given the new experiment powers to counter her own, and by that Lilith, meant that it may not be the end of the demon she had at one time become. _Why does the keep happening? What if my nightmare comes true? Well, I won't let it happen! Too much has happened to me already, me and Stitch._

_I vow that I will never become that monster ever again. And if she can return another way, I will not stop until she is destroyed. _

As she made her silent vow, she heard the sound of footsteps from behind her. She spun around, and came face to face with an experiment, one she had never seen before.

"Greetings." Said the night blue experiment. "My name is Siron."

End Chapter 6

Next Chapter

Confrontations


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 7

Confrontations

Lilo was taken aback slightly by the experiment's forwardness. "Hi, I'm Li…I mean Sora, nice to meet you." Lilo didn't exactly know how much this experiment knew about herself or the extra programming she caused to have installed in him, but she figured it would be better if she just played dumb.

"Your real name is Lilo, isn't it?" Siron said with some uncertainty. He didn't recognize this experiment from his mental records, but Jumba could have created more experiments that he had not been told about. But the reaction he received confirmed his beliefs. Her face showed that he had been correct, and his enhanced vision showed him that she changed color slightly, though a normal human, or experiment, would not have noticed.

_How much does this new experiment know about me? Man, I hope it can't read minds._ "How do you know that? What else do you know about me?" Lilo asked worried.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you. I only know what Jumba programmed me with about you, and what was in his file on you and the LG project."

This caught Lilo's interest. _Jumba made a file on me? I wonder what's in it? Information on my powers maybe? Or better yet, a weakness._ "You found a file on me? Where was it? What did it have on it?"

Siron closed his eyes, slightly upset. _So he kept secrets from her too. I wonder if she even realizes what might happen. How much did Jumba tell her about her powers? Did he tell her anything at all? Has she just been flying blind, like I have?_

Lilo noticed the hurt look on Siron's face. "Did I say something wrong? What's wrong?"

"How much has Jumba kept hidden from you? What secrets do you not know about yourself, I wonder. Why does he keep things from us, his own creations?" Siron looked up at her and saw the look of concern on her face.

It was Lilo's turn to look downward at the earth. She felt ashamed of herself. He was talking about his powers Jumba had kept hidden from him. Powers he wouldn't have had had she not gone bad and caused so much damage. So much hurt. Lilith was gone, and she still ruined the lives of others.

Siron noticed that Lilo's fur had grown darker still, and now resembled 626's fur in color. Something was upsetting her as well. But what, he had said nothing hurtful at all to her. Then he realized that she knew more than he thought she knew. She knew about his rogue function, and chances are she blamed herself for it. Jumba had told him one time while they were talking that most creatures were selfish and uncaring, but Siron was no longer convinced that was so. Already in his short time he had met two completely unselfish people. "It's not your fault, you know. I read Jumba's journal, and it was beyond your control. But how do you know that much about me, when we just met?"

Lilo looked up as she replied "I overheard Jumba and Pleakly talking about you earlier today. At first I was angry that he had the nerve to create another experiment, after what happened with me and all, but I listened to how proud he was of you, and how concerned he was when he talked about your…flaw."

"I overheard him too. When he discovered I was listening in, he tried to call out to me, but I ran away. I was afraid he would be mad at me."

Lilo smiled slightly. _He's not evil at all, and I don't think Jumba ever intended him to be. He's civil and polite. I wish Stitch would act that way more often._ "I don't think he's mad at you. I think he might be afraid for you. Jumba has changed a lot since he first came to Earth, much of it in the last year. But why did you come and talk to me? Jumba told Pleakly that he told you to stay away from me and Stitch."

"I wanted to ask you for your help. Jumba said you helped all of the other experiments find a purpose. I figured you might be able to help me as well."

Siron noticed that Lilo's fur had returned to it's normal hue, meaning she had calmed down. "I don't think you'll need help like the other's did. They needed to find a purpose, a one true place. You already have yours, but something inside you might jeopardize it. We need to find out everything Jumba knows about it, and figure out how to prevent it."

She then turned back to face the ocean as the sun sank down beneath the waves. "And don't worry about why that program was created. If she ever comes back, you won't have to stop her. I will do it. I'll never become that monster ever again, and if someone tries to bring her back another way, well God help them."

The neon lights of the arcade set an excited mood as children happily tried to best each other at various video and skill games. In the corner, Jason and Alex were busy trying to school each other in a game of Guilty Gear X. After a few moments, Jason threw his hands in the air in frustration. "That the fifth time in a row you beat me. Maybe if you'd use someone other than Sol every once in a while, I might have a chance."

"Save it. Ok Chris, you're up next." Knuckles said as he motioned to the other controller.

Stitch just leaned back on a change machine. "I think I'll pass. Go ahead and beat on Jason some more."

"Something wrong dude? Normally you'd be all for whipping it up on us." Jason said as he turned to face his friend. "Something on your mind? I mean we should be excited. Everyone's gonna remember what we did today. It was totally awesome."

"No, it's nothing." Actually, it was far from nothing. Many of the same worries that haunted his girlfriend's mind troubled him as well. Richie knew their secret, and Stitch was worried he wasn't the only one. Myrtle had been giving Lilo dirty looks more than usual, and he'd actually caught her spying on the house a couple of times. Things were getting dangerous, and Stitch was worried how Cobra might react.

Then there was the new experiment, 628. Stitch was still unsure why it was researching itself the other night. Could Jumba be keeping something from it? Stitch knew he should let it go, 628 was just an apprentice for Jumba, but something kept nagging at him that something was wrong and it had more to it. He would have to find out soon. A little late night trip to the ship might clear things up. _That's what I'll do, I'll sneak into Jumba's ship and find out anything I can on 628._

"Hello, Earth to Chris. Come in." Jason said as he waved his hand in front of Stitch's face. "You still there, or are your thoughts on a certain someone?" he added with a smirk.

Knuckles just rolled his eyes. "Obliviously Stitch is just deep in thought. You should try it sometime."

"Very funny. Now I want a rematch." Jason said as he put 50 cents in the slot.

Knuckles raised his eyebrows. "You're on."

It was a minute or so later when it looked like Jason was actually going to win, as Richie came up to the trio.

"Hey Richie, I thought you went home. Your dad was supposed to call today." Stitch said he noticed the red head.

"Yo Richie, you want next game? I am so about to beat Knuckles and his cheap moves." Jason said, not taking any attention off what he was doing.

"You haven't won yet." Knuckles replied.

"Jason, I have to ask you something." Richie said calmly. "Why did you and my sister break up?"

Jason went ridged, and Knuckles took his chance. It was over in seconds and he had won again. He smirked and turned to his defeated and stunned opponent, but instead of gloating, he merely said "Told you he'd find out sooner or later."

Jason let out a heavy sigh and turned around. No surprise was on Stitch's face, he had figured it out a while ago. "I guess I have some explaining to do, but not here. Let's go grab some ice cream and I'll tell you what you wanna know."

After the four boys got ice cream for the parlor next door, they sat down at a table in the corner as Jason began to explain.

"It was about a year ago around this time. I was dragged by my mom to one of her female empowerment meetings, guess she wanted to sensitize me or something so I wouldn't be like my dad. My dad, as Knuckles already knows, was a complete sleaze ball. I don't remember him, since he abandoned me and Mom before I was born, but I heard a lot about him from my grandparents. And my mom, but I'm not allowed to repeat the stuff she says about him."

"You're digressing again Jason. I told you about that." Knuckles said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Whatever. My mom became an ultra feminist after that; Grandma says it was to get over Dad and how he treated her. Anyway, I was at the meeting, bored out of my mind when my mother told me I should go over to Myrtle and her friends and socialize a little bit. Of course what she really meant was 'Show everyone what a gentleman I raised.'"

"Then what happened?" Stitch asked, now very interested in the conversation. He wasn't surprised when he found out that Jason had dated Myrtle, but he was curious as to why ANYONE would date her.

"Well, you know the old story. We got to talking, and I guess I figured she wasn't as bad as everyone at school had said she was. When I told her what certain people had said about her, she just laughed and said it was jealous gossip that she wasn't really that mean, she was just a little aggressive, and they were all jealous."

"And you believed her? I guess you also didn't hear how big a liar she is. She'll say anything to get what she wants." Stitch replied as he finished his ice cream.

"Yeah, I guess I should have been more cautious, but I believed her. Then she asked me to the dance, and I said yes. Then she asked if I wanted to hang out with her the next day, and I said yes again. And then, well…"

"Well what?" Richie asked, dieing to know what happened next.

Jason let his head hang low, like he was embarrassed. He even blushed a little. "She kissed me."

"And then you were putty in her hands." Knuckles joked.

"Shut up, Alex!" Jason said, trying to hit Knuckles on the side, but missing completely as Knuckles dodge the blow, like he'd been expecting it.

Like Jason, Stitch didn't find this amusing in the slightest. _That's just like Myrtle. I bet she did it so she could control him. _"Then what happened? Did she cuddle up to you and ask you to be her boyfriend?"

Jason looked down at the floor. "Yes." He replied weakly. "I can't believe I fell for that! For the next week she had my heart on a string. I did anything she wanted, carry her books, buy her and all her friends ice cream, she even made me ditch Knuckles for a while, because she 'didn't like his attitude.' I was a complete sap."

"But why? Why would you let her do that to you? I always thought you said you were really independent. Why did you let my sister boss you around?" Richie asked, completely engrossed in his friend's tale. He knew his sister was bossy, but manipulative too?

"I don't know even now what came over me. But I guess you want to hear why I broke up with her huh, and why she hates me so much now. Well it was at the dance."

Flashback

The atmosphere of the gym was charged with the excitement of the many children, dancing and talking loudly. It was the first boy girl dance any of them had ever been too, and many of them were taking it seriously, especially Myrtle Evans. She had come dressed up in a sparkling red strapless gown with matching purse, together which must have cost at least 400 dollars. She had just sent her new boyfriend Jason to fetch her drink when she spotted Lilo by herself.

"What are you doing here Weirdlo? I'm surprised that anyone let you in with that on."

As a matter of fact, Lilo was in a gothic looking black skirt and white blouse, which Pleakly had made for her after a design he found in a magazine he picked up from a Hot Topic. Of course, she could have come in anything and still been picked on by Myrtle.

Lilo just ignored her and tried to get away, back into the crowd, but she was cut off by Teresa and Yuki.

"Where going Lilo, back to find your date. Oh that right." Myrtle said, putting her hands to her face for effect, "You don't have one. What the matter, couldn't find a date? Everybody think you're too creepy? Say, why didn't you bring your dog, you take him everywhere else."

Lilo struggled to hold back her anger as she tried to shove past the two girls. "It's all true isn't it? It seems you'll always just be a social outcast, doomed to a life of loneliness."

"Yeah, and you're a jerk." Lilo retorted as she gave up trying to get past the two girls and headed for the door.

Myrtle thought it was high time to bring the fact up that she had a date and Lilo didn't. "Ah, what's the matter, upset because you're dateless? Or that I have a cute date?"

"Jason isn't as stupid as your yes girls, Myrtle. He'll figure out that you're a jerk sooner or later." Lilo said as she dodged around Elena and headed for the door.

"Jason does what I tell him to, and with good reason. I'm his girlfriend." Myrtle said as she turned to face Lilo.

Lilo noticed a reflection in the mirror, and gave the red-head a big smirk. "Not anymore you're not."

Myrtle looked at Lilo puzzled, until Lilo pointed toward the door to the gym. Myrtle turned around to see Jason, with a hurt look in his eyes. Just as Myrtle tried to say something, he bolted, dropping the drinks on the floor.

Jason ran to the restroom and hid in a stall, trying to fight back tears. He would have started to cry, but he heard someone speak to him. "I told you she was trouble."

"And I should have listened to you, Knuckles man." Jason replied with his head hung low. "Can you forgive me for ditching you these last few days?"

"Already done." Knuckles said as he leaned just outside the stall. "And I know what you're thinking."

Jason narrowed his eyes in anger. His heart was torn to pieces by the words of the evil red-headed harpy. What he was thinking was just one word. "Revenge."

Myrtle and her friends had spent the better part of and hour searching for Jason. They finally found him over by the soda machine, a soda in hand, talking to Knuckles sounding as depressed as he could be.

"Sweetie, there you are. I was worried you had gone home by yourself." Myrtle cooed as she tried to grab Jason's arm. Knuckles shoved her away from the distraught boy.

"Get away from him; you've done enough damage already." He said as his eyes narrowed.

"Listen, Spy Boy, I'm here to apologize. I got carried away and said some things I didn't mean, you know?" Myrtle then turned back to Jason. "I'm sorry Jason."

Jason turned around and opened his eyes. "Yeah, I know." He then tore the top of the can and pointed it at her. Apparently he'd taken his rage out on the can, and it was REALLY shook up. The soda dosed Myrtle and her friends and the group collectively shrieked. "I know that we're finished."

Knuckles chuckled as the two boys ran out the door. Meanwhile Myrtle was screaming at him, but neither boy cared. They just ran as fast as they could, into the night.

End Flashback

"Wow, so that was what happened. I guess Myrtle wasn't totally wrong in blaming Lilo for your breakup." Richie said as Jason finished recalling what had happened.

"Wait a minute. She blames Lilo for all that? She was the one who said that Jason was her puppet." Stitch said, angered that Myrtle would accuse Lilo of breaking up her relationship.

"And I have question, Richie. How did you find out about all of this? I highly doubt your sister told you." Knuckles added.

"Well, I kinda read her diary." Richie said embarrassed.

"Whoa, way to go Richie!" Jason exclaimed as he kneeled in closer. "So, she got any juicy secrets in there?"

"None that I saw, it was mostly boring stuff." Richie replied.

"It figures. An airhead like her probably wouldn't bother to write anything interesting down anyway." Jason said as he stood up and stretched. "Well, I'm gonna head home, it's getting dark. See you guys at school tomorrow."

"Yeah see you later." Knuckles replied as he followed suit.

As the four boys left the building, Richie grabbed on to Stitch's shoulder. "I need to tell you something, Chris."

Stitch turned around to face Richie. "Yeah, what's up? Something you need to tell me?"

Richie turned his gaze to the ground. "Yeah. I lied about not finding anything in Myrtle's diary. I think she might be on to you and your family. She kept talking about how she was going to get revenge on Lilo by exposing her family as aliens."

Stitch's face took on a serious tone. "Thanks again Richie. I suspected she might be on to us, but now it seems she's out to get Lilo. I'll have to tell her we have to be more careful. I'll see you at school, ok."

"Ok." Richie replied.

"Thanks for keeping our secret Richie. It means more to me and Lilo than you might ever know."

Siron had just left the beach where he had spoken to Lilo. Even though they had just met, and he was designed to be able to hurt her, she was still willing to help him. He walked along the path in silence as darkness fell around him, when his keen eyes noticed someone sitting on the bench. Someone small in a funny yellow hat. Chance was apparently starring up into the sky. As Siron drew closer, he noticed a serious look on the little boy's face, like something was wrong. "Chance, what do you see up there that warrant's such a look?" he called out to the boy.

Chance's face immediately took a happier tone upon hearing the voice of a friend. He turned to face Siron as he reached the bench and sat down. "The stars are wrong." he replied.

Siron gave the boy a puzzled look. "The stars, are wrong?" He looked up at the sky and his computer brain quickly checked over the positions of the stars. They were right where they were supposed to be. "The stars seemed to be where they are supposed to be this time of year on this planet."

Chance turned his gaze back up to the sky. "That's not what I meant. Something's wrong. The sky looks bleak. But I can't tell what it is yet."

This seemly strange behavior concerned Siron. What was wrong with Chance? What did he think he saw? Siron looked back up to see the sky was perfectly clear. The full moon shone brightly in the night, and the stars twinkled. "I can't see anything. What do you see up there that concerns you?"

Chance brought his head back down. "I guess it doesn't matter right now. It will revel itself eventually."

Siron was growing more confused by the minute. Was Chance mentally ill? He seemed to be functioning perfectly, but the way he spoke, he was completely serious about this. "I don't understand, what's wrong?"

"I can't describe it, really. I just get this feeling when I look up into the night sky. Sometimes it's good, like the night before I met you. And sometimes it's bad. It's been like this ever since the accident."

"What accident? What happened?" Siron asked as he turned to his young friend.

"It's been almost two years since then. It was back when I lived in Memphis. I was playing in the yard when my ball bounced onto the sidewalk. I was scared it'd go into the street. I was only 4 at time, and I wasn't allowed to go into the street."

"With good reason, a car might have hit you. Did one?" Siron said with a bit of sadness.

"The man was on something, I don't remember what it was, though Mommy told me later on. He ran off the street and hit me as I got my ball. Mommy called an ambulance while Jon dragged the man out of the car so he couldn't run away." Chance looked to the ground as his voice became sober. "I died. Mommy said I didn't, but every time I ask her, she can't look at me. For a moment I was dead, but something pulled me back. It didn't let me leave. It made me live. I overheard the doctors at the hospital. They said I should have been dead instantly, the way I was hit. But I wasn't."

Siron knew that it was possible to die for a few moments then come back, although it was highly unusual. But the way Chance described it made him think. For a moment, he too thought there was more to it, but his rational mind put it aside.

The two sat silently for a moment, and then Chance spoke. "So, what did you find out about your hidden power?"

Siron sighed heavily. "More than I ever wanted to."

"What do you mean?"

"I discovered my hidden powers come with programming that could overwrite my current personality. I don't want to change into some berserk monster, but who knows what will happen if the program activates." Siron said sadly.

"That sounds bad. But it may not be as bad as you think." Chance replied as he fiddled with his shoelaces.

"What do you mean? How could any of that possibly be anything but bad?"

"Things have a way of surprising you. Perhaps, one day, your powers maybe the only thing standing between you and something horrible." Chance said as he turned to face Siron. The look of seriousness had returned, but Chance didn't seem as tense as before.

"Something horrible?" Siron replied. _Could he mean Lilith? How could Chance know about that? Jumba never mentioned anything about him in his notes about that day and no one else was ever supposed to find out. But Chance has said he had bad feelings before, could he?_ "Chance, when was the last time you had a bad feeling when you looked up at the sky?"

"A bad feeling like now? The last time was about six months ago, but this feels worse. A lot worse." Chance said as he looked back at the sky. "To tell the truth, the bad feeling never really went away after that, it just became weak for awhile. Sometimes I couldn't even feel it, but I can feel it now. I think it might be the same thing as before."

Things made less sense by the minute. It could be possible that the accident Chance had given him some sort of extrasensory perception, and that he sensed Lilith the first time. But he said the bad feeling never left, even when Lilo became good again, which means Jumba's fears may be coming to pass. But how? _What does all this mean?_

"Destiny. Siron, only you can do what you can do, whatever it is. Things happen for a reason, Jon told me that a long time ago. He said that when the time came, if you listened to your heart, you'd know what to do, and things would turn out alright in the end."

Then Chance rose from the bench. "I have to go home. If I'm out to much later, Mommy will be really mad."

Siron sighed. "Yes, and I suppose I should head home too. I have a lot to figure out, and tonight a friend and I will be going thru more of Jumba's files, in hopes of finding out the truth." He then rose from the bench and headed in the opposite direction. As soon as he was out of hearing distance, he spoke to himself "I can't expect Chance to understand the situation I'm in, he's only a small child. I'd better head back to the ship, Lilo will probably be waiting."

As the two figures went their separate ways, Chance looked back on the experiment, and smiled. _I might just understand more than he knows._

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, on a large cruiser ship, a group of alien scientists was going over their work, which floated in a large tube filled with green liquid. The men turned around when they heard the door swoosh open.

"Good evening, Dr. Hamsterville. How are you this evening?" Said one of the scientists.

"Enough with the pleasantries, where is my creation?" Hamsterville said in his normally sour tone.

"The clone is right here sir. She is progressing rapidly and should be ready for programming in a few days." Said another scientist.

"Good, good. And what of the data charts. You are certain the clone will have none of either her predecessors' personalities?" Hamsterville replied, his mood obviously happier.

"She will have no memories of the original, as we originally stated, and the programming should make her completely loyal." Said the third as he brought up the proper charts.

"Excellent! I will then be leaving you to your work gentleman." Hamsterville said as he left the room.

A few hours later and only one scientist remained on duty. Suddenly one of the atmospheric charts for the chamber spiked slightly. "That's odd, I wonder what that was." He proceeded to check over everything, and could find nothing wrong. "Oh well, I guess I'll go over it again in the morning."

Just moments after he left the room, the lights flickered, and inside the chamber, a small snake-like shadow creped around the clone's neck. _Awaken; be free of your bonds. Remember who did this to you. Make them pay._

And then, Lilith's eyes shot open. _Oh don't worry, I will._

Back on Earth, Myrtle was all smiles when she entered her room to write in her diary. Her dad had called earlier, and he was coming home! But that could wait. Thanks to Richie, she'd finally got what she wanted. She took her diary out of her special place. She knew Richie had read it, and he WOULD pay for it later, but he had inadverantly led Myrtle to what she desired.

When she discovered someone had gone threw her window, and that Richie's notebook was gone, she instinctively looked to where her diary was kept. It was crooked. She threw a fit and ordered the girls to help her find Richie. He was going to pay dearly for reading her secrets. Yuki went to Jason's, Elena to Victoria's and Teresa to Alex's, thinking that's where he might be. Myrtle went to Lilo's house to see if he was with Chris, and to see if she could finally get some dirt on Weirdlo's alien family. And boy did she. As she approached the house, she saw Lilo standing outside that weird side house thing, which Myrtle now knew was a spaceship. Suddenly, Lilo started to concentrate and was enveloped in a bright light. In her place stood a creature with wings that looked like Lilo's weird dog with hair. Myrtle practically skipped home with her new found dirt on her enemy. The other girls never found Richie, but Myrtle didn't care anymore. Now she could make Lilo pay for what she did.

Dear Diary,

Today I found out Weirdlo's darkest secret: not only is most of her family aliens, she is too! I've finally got the dirt I need on her, but I won't stop there. Oh no, I'm going to make sure she suffers ten times what she made me suffer when she broke me and Jason up. Not only will Chris know his girlfriend is a monster, but the whole island, no, the whole world will! Then they'll take that freak away and lock her up in some government facility or something. Maybe they'll even dissect her.

Diary, I'm not just going to destroy her relationship. I'm going to destroy her life.

End Chapter 7

Next Chapter

According To Legend


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 8

According To Legend

It was about 9 PM when Siron returned to the ship. Jumba was waiting for him at the entrance. As he met Jumba's gaze, Jumba looked downward. "Am very sorry 628, did not be meaning for you to find out that way."

"Then why? Why did you hide all that from me?" Siron asked.

Jumba sighed as he turned back into the ship. "Is because I was trying to find way to fix error in programming before it was becoming real problem. Did not want to tell you because did not want to worry you."

"Can you fix it, Jumba?"? Siron asked as he stood in the door.

"I will be finding a way. Even if it is taking miracle, I will find way to fix it. Now be coming inside, you have had long day."

As the two went inside, the mood was somber. Jumba was truthful in the fact he wouldn't stop until he found a way to fix the problem, but it would have to make itself known in some way before he could isolate it safely without harm to Siron. Siron thought about what both Lilo and Chance had said, that he did have a purpose and that if it came to it, he may have to use it. He hoped that Chance was mistaken, but something told him the boy was on to something, that there was more to it. He got onto the computer, where an email was displayed.

"You need to be reading that, Siron. Does not reveal anything relative to function, but does reveal origin of name." Jumba said as he read over the little experiment's shoulder.

"What is this?" Siron asked as he looked at the long document. It had strange pictures and was obviously a translation of some older, possibly ancient, text.

"It is your namesake. These documents are telling of the Legend of Siron. Had old college buddy on Turo send me these. He is thinking there may be more to them than legend." Then Jumba laughed. "Then again, he was always thinking such fanciful things. Oh well, enjoy reading texts, 628. Will be seeing you in morning."

Siron turned back to the screen. "So this is the story of the person I was named after."

After quickly glancing over the first page or so of the document, Siron quickly realized that his namesake was a being of sort, not a person. The texts described him as "clad in metallic armor of crimson, which thick, polygonal shape made him look more machine than man. His helmet is full covering, the silver colored breather having no intake, his eye holes instead are yellow gems in the shape of narrowed, angry eyes."

Siron read further, as the text began to tell of the nature of the being.

_The Siron is a creature of what we have come to call the Omniverse. We have known for a long time that our universe is part of a larger whole, know as a multiverse. But what we have only recently uncovered is that multiverse is really part of an even larger whole. The universes in a multiverse usually share characteristics with each other: similar people, similar civilizations, etc.; although the events occurring in each can vary, they are often similar to some degree. Multiverses, on the other hand, vary wildly on every aspect…_

_The Siron is of unknown origin, though it is speculated that it was born of the same energies that permeate and often influence the course of universes. Its power is in many ways almost limitless, thought it seems to be able to have little effect on the power of life; as such it cannot bring back the dead. It permeates an extremely chaotic energy at all times, the effect of which is that it is said that no mind control can hold it or anything near it, to the effect that even established control shatters in its aura…_

_In addition to it's aura it seems to be able to control massive amounts of energy, whether from itself or from the emotions of souls in contact with it, we are not sure. What we do know is that it is capable of turning energies back upon their sender by using its own power, as if its power was adaptable enough to match and reflect energies as if they were solid. It does so by channeling its power thru its weapon, which according to legend has changed over its existence, yet is normally a sword or mace…_

_The Siron is normally bound to the Omniverse, and can only interfere in matters that threaten at the very least the destruction of one or more universes. Ancient legends infer that it can overstep this boundary, as in many of the tales of its deeds. As to how, however, the legends give us little. And as to what such forces can create such a threat, we do not even wish to begin to comprehend._

The text continued on, speaking of the many tales attributed to the Siron. Just by reading the text, Siron realized that many did have elements that could never exist in reality, at least, this one, if the text was to be believed. Such a prospect made him more excited that he could ever remember being, if he could discover a way to travel between universes, or even farther, the potential for learning could be limitless.

For the first time in his short life, Siron daydreamed. He dreamed of finding a way to cross the barrier, of what he might find on the other side, and of waited there and beyond. And he dreamed of what it would be like to meet his namesake. His thoughts however were interrupted by someone entering the ship. Two someones, actually.

Lilo and Stitch had bumped into each other on their way to the ship, and each confessed they knew about 628. Of course, Lilo was upset that Stitch hadn't told her right away after he found out, and likewise Stitch was upset when he found out that Lilo never intended to let him use his programming, because she wanted to face her demons herself. Both decided the best thing to do was help Siron find out as much as he could, so perhaps they could find a way to suppress the programming.

Siron turned to greet the two as they entered the ship, not surprised that 626 now knew of his existence. Lilo was after all 626's mate, and part of Siron's psychological programming stated that it was wise for mates not to keep secrets. "Hello. I guess you want to see the chip I found on Lilo's powers."

"Actually, no. We want to see if we can help you find out more about yourself." Lilo replied.

"Yeah, I already read Lilo's file from over your shoulder, so I know what it says." Stitch said as he turned his attention to the monitor.

"How long have you known about me?" Siron asked, surprised.

"Since yesterday afternoon, when you were hanging out with that kid." Stitch replied as he studied the screen. "I thought Jumba said he didn't believe in any of this?"

"He got that for me so I could learn more about my namesake, to make up for the fact he hasn't be able to find a way to fix my programming."

"He said he could fix it? But I thought he told Pleakly that he couldn't fix what he didn't know was wrong." Lilo said as she turned her attention away from the screen.

"He said he wouldn't give up until he found a way, but without knowing where to look in my programming, he could peremently damage me. He told me this when I came home."

Lilo smiled, while Stitch continued to pay attention to the texts. "I'm proud of Jumba; he's come a long way from when he'd take an experiment apart for almost no reason." Lilo proclaimed happily.

"Yeah, I remember when he first came to Earth; he said he was going to take me apart that one time when he tried to capture me." Stitch added. "Hey, look at this attachment to the file." He then proceeded to open the attachment, which was a note from the person who sent it, plus what looked to be a story of sorts.

Dear Jumba,

I have recently been researching the Siron mythos, and I found a connection in one of the weirdest of places. The enclosed tale is not Aragorian, its Tyrusian, about one hundred years before the formation of the Galactic Alliance.

_A Tale of Hope from Man to Child_

_A man and a son, in a darkening world, wander in search of miracles. One day the son turns to the father. "Father, how will we know we find hope?" The man's reply was _

"_When one with courage stands up to guide us. Until then, we must wait."_

"_Why cannot we stand up and lead, Father?" Asked the son._

"_Why cannot the one beyond meddle in affairs he wishes to? He cannot because he has not found the way. The bards of long ago say that when one not of this world wishes to touch the worlds of us and others, he must find a single soul, one not for the world. Only then can he find his vessel into the affairs of those he seeks to help."_

"_What does that all mean, Father?"_

_The father smiled as they reached the fork. "We simply have not found the way yet. We must search until the day destiny calls us to our way to banish this fear."_

I know the tale is rather short, but I'm sure "the one beyond" is the Siron. As to what it means to find a single soul, not for the world, I'm stumped. You've created some smart experiments, and you're always bragging on how clever that little girl is, so I'd figured since you'd inquired about it, I'd send this your way.

Hope to see you at the college reunion.

Yours truly,

Magaxs of Typhoo

"Well, that was interesting. So, Lilo, any ideas of what it means?" Stitch asked.

"Why are you asking me? I don't have any idea of what any of it means either. What makes you think I'd know?" Lilo replied.

"Well you are a 'clever little girl'." Stitch said with a smirk.

"Hah, hah. And aren't you supposed to be the experiment with the computer brain? Do you know what it means?" Lilo said as she gave Stitch a look.

"Ok, so we can assume none of us are sure what it means, or if it means anything at all." Siron said as he finished reading over the files. His namesake, if this was all to be believed, was some kind of powerful. It was entertaining and all, but it got him no closer to helping him. He sighed. It was getting late and they had spent all of their time reading ancient fairy tales.

"Well, I guess that didn't help much, and me and Stitch need to be getting to bed." Lilo said, empathizing her point by yawning.

"Yeah, we have school tomorrow. Guess we'll see you later, Siron." Stitch said as he got down off the consol.

"Wait one moment. I have something for you Lilo. Apparently Stitch has already seen most of it, but I think you should be able to go over it as well, since it is about you." Siron said as he climbed up to the parts box where the chip on the LG project was kept. He opened the box and took the chip out, then tossed it to the aqua blue experiment.

"Is this what I think it is? Is this Jumba's file on me?" Lilo asked, just out of reflex.

"Indeed, and take this." Siron continued as he dropped down from the shelf and took out a small device. "This is a microscreen. It isn't as powerful as any of Jumba's computers, but it should be able to read the chip and tell you what you want to know."

Lilo smiled as she took the microscreen from Siron. "Thanks, you have no idea how much this means to me."

_As_ _someone else who does not know everything about himself, I can tell you I do._ Siron thought to himself as the pair left the ship.

Chaos reigned on the Ramos as the scientists struggled to isolate the cause of the several explosions in the research labs. This was made more difficult, however, due to the fact that each explosion took out more of the surveillance and monitoring equipment. And it was about to get a lot harder.

"What is going on here?" screamed Hamsterville as he came onto the bridge in his hoverchair.

"Dr. Hamsterville, we're sorry for the disturbance. It seems something caused a series of explosions on one of the research bays, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry, just a mechanical failure I'm sure." Said the lead scientist, pulling at his collar, sweating bullets.

"Mechanical failure my pattooke! One of your projects is out of control and so help me, if it damages my creation…"

Hamsterville was interrupted by one of the crew members. "We have a visual. It seems to be some sort of black creature."

Everyone turned to the screen, and Hamsterville's eyes widened in horror. "No, this cannot be!" he turned to the lead scientist and flew up to his face. "You said that there was no chance of her regaining any memories!"

"There wasn't sir! There was no way possible for her to regain her memories on her own! I'm just as confused as you are." The lead scientist stuttered out. There was no scientific way for a clone to have the memories of the original unless the creator had them put there.

"Then why is she destroying the ship?" Hamsterville said in a menacing tone. The truth was, however, that he was scared out of his wits. If this clone had gained the memories of the original, he would be her first target, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

"Perhaps a flaw or maybe somebody sabotaged her?"

Hamsterville turned back to the crew. "I don't care what any of you are having to do to stop it, just stop it!"

"Do we have permission to terminate?" replied one of the lizardmen at the controls.

"Yes, yes, a thousands times, yes! Just keep her away from me!"

Meanwhile, in the bowels of the ship, Lilith was happily destroying anything and everything in sight, but she was starting to get bored. "Come out wherever you are, you little gerbil, I promise it won't hurt…a little." She laughed as she blasted another security camera.

Her ears perked up as she heard soft footsteps from behind her. _So, someone thinks they can sneak up on me. Are they in for a surprise. _She turned around to face her would be ambushers. "I know you're there. Now come out and I might not kill you right off."

Silence. She could still hear the sound of their breathers, and even some of their heartbeats, but they were trying to force her to make the first move. Her face formed into an evil smirk. _So they want to die that way, huh? Ok, I'm good with that._ Lilith charged her wings as she took flight toward the corner. As she came around the bend, she heard the sounds of plasma fire. She retracted her wings around her body as the bolts came flying forward toward her. Not surprisingly, at least to her, the bolts all reflected off harmlessly. Still they fired, thinking they might be able to bring her down if they kept her on the defensive.

They were wrong. Lilith discharged the energy she had been gathering since she woke up, and it created a large ion explosion, destroying everything within 20ft of her, including her attackers. Nothing but ash and charred bone mass remained of the attack squad. She laughed loudly as she walked over the corpses like she was passing thru a grassy field, as many of the bones she stepped upon turned to dust. "Was that the best you have?" she shouted as loud as she could. "If so, you're all going to die."

"We've lost communication with Squad 3, sir. This doesn't look good." said the Comm. Officer.

"I know it's not good! We have no choice but to begin evacuation, but we will need one of the squads to obtain some the higher end projects." The lead scientist replied.

"We may not be able to." one of the scanner officers said as he turned away from his consol. "The creature is currently in the high security storage bay."

The lead scientist turned pale. "Forget evacuation! Send all security squads to the storage bay." He then turned back to the door. "If it gets a hold of what's contained within that vault, then there might not be any use in running."

"Speaking of running, sir, Doctor Hamsterville took off and is headed in that direction."

"I don't care! It's his fault we're in this mess anyway! I don't care if that monster of his tears him apart!"

Meanwhile, the storage bay was a war zone. To make matters worse than they were already, Lilith had gotten a hold of several high powered explosives and was tossing them into the mobs of solders. The bombs would explode on impact, leaving a deep crater and a bloody mess of bodies. The explosions were big enough to be felt all throughout the ship. With Lilith distracted by all the mayhem, Hamsterville snuck past and into one of the vaults. He entered an override code into the computer and the vault door swung open, revealing a ship with a strange satellite hitched onto it.

"Well, this plot was a big failure, but I always have a plan B!" Hamsterville said as he boarded the vessel, which wasn't much larger than a Federation Space Cruiser. "The device attached to this ship, in my command, the damage will be huge!"

He quickly entered the codes that undid the security locks on the hanger access, and punched the ignition. The ship flew thru the corridor and into the hanger, where another quick hack and Hamsterville got the bay doors open. "So long, you fools!"

Hamsterville's activities did not go unnoticed by the bridge crew.

"That little… he stole the Sweeper Cannon! Get everyone to their ships on the double. Have Research evacuate to Base Stellar, and have all security personal go after that little rodent. We can't let anyone find out about that thing, we could all be arrested!"

"Sir, we have a problem! Several charges are missing for the Sweeper, and they are likely aboard its transport craft."

"If Hamsterville finds out about, he could use the cannon on the station. Get everyone off the Ramos, this instant!"

Too bad none of them would make it. As soon as Hamsterville had cleared the Sweeper Cannon's blast radius, he inserted a charge in it, locked on, and fired. The Sweeper Cannon gathered the radiation around it in visible green bolts of power. Within seconds the green bolts had amassed into a huge violet charge at the center of the dish. The cannon discharged the massive bolt of radiation, which cut thru the hull of the ship like butter. Less than a second later, something else discharged from the cannon, following the path of the beam. This red object connected with the hull of the ship and exploded in a bright flash, evaporating the entire ship in the blink of an eye.

Hamsterville laughed maniacally as he watched the entire spectacle. This went on for about another minute, as he savored the fact that now he had a weapon powerful enough to get revenge on that miserable little dirt ball called Earth. That fact that he had escaped that psychotic clone only made everything better.

"That was a nice light show, Hamsterville." Came a voice from behind him. "But I prefer my own brand of firepower."

Hamsterville turned around in horror at the sound of that voice. "It can't be how did you?"

There Lilith stood, in all her dark glory, her wings spread wide as she approached her doomed victim. "Hello, again." She said casually, with a menacing smirk upon her face.

"Ok, listen. I'm pretty sure we are both wanting the same thing, right? Revenge on that miserable little earth girl?" Hamsterville stuttered out, try to make a deal with the homicidal clone.

"Yeah, but there's just one problem." Lilith replied. "And I think it needs to be fixed before anyone gets revenge on anybody."

"What is it? I will get you anything you want!" Hamsterville screamed, thinking his life may have just been spared.

The grin on Lilith's face, on the other hand, should have told him otherwise. "The problem is, gerbilville," she paused for dramatic effect. "I work alone."

Before Hamsterville could even muster up a response, Lilith let loose with a blast powerful enough to fry the small hamster-like creature. The blast was powerful enough that it slammed his blasted form into the wall of the bridge.

Lilith walked up to admire her work. "Not bad, didn't disengrate him though." She turned her head up as a flash overtook her body, and left in its place her human form, although a bit of color had been added. Black tattoos of various shadowy designs covered her body in different places. She turned to look into the glass. "Nice touch, but I won't be able to just try and switch myself with the little good girl."

She stood there for a moment, like she was listening to something. "That is a better idea. And it would take a lot less time. With a lot more suffering."

She waltzed over to the controls and set the auto-pilot. "Yeah, I know. And I'll get rid of your little problem after I get my revenge on those two, don't worry about it." She then turned to look out the window as the auto-pilot engaged the H-drive. With a meancing smile she touched her hand to the pane. "Ready or not, you little weaklings, cause he I come."

End Chapter 8

Next Chapter

Principle Bubbles


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch, or the card game mentioned in this chapter.

Chapter 9

Principle Bubbles

At the breakfast table the next morning, Lilo was having trouble staying awake. Although Stitch had made her promise to try and get some sleep, she couldn't resist going over the files Siron had given her in painstaking detail. It brought to light a lot of why Jumba had made the serum in the first place, as a silly whim turned serious project. She had to smile, Jumba wasn't too keen on how love worked, but he still helped it along in his own special way. She didn't understand the technical parts too well, but she could probably have Stitch, or Siron if Stitch didn't know, explain it to her. Her smile faded as she thought about the new experiment. He was the only one Jumba had ever intentionally made civil, if not good, and now a program that she had inspired threatened him. She just hoped that Jumba would be able to find a cure, and fast.

Stitch looked over to see his Bugee Bu in deep thought, or half asleep, he wasn't too sure. "Lilo, are you ok?"

This brought Lilo out of her daze long enough to mutter a "Yeah, I'm fine" before yawning and turning back to her uneaten breakfast.

"You were up all night, weren't you?" Stitch replied, in a worried tone. He knew why she'd been up all night, she had been reading over the files that Siron had given her on what she'd become.

"Lilo, why were you up all night?" Nani said sternly as she entered the kitchen. She hadn't seen Lilo this drowsy since the peak of her experiment catching days.

"I couldn't sleep. I had too much on my mind." Lilo replied as she took a bite of her toast.

"That's no excuse, young lady." Pleakly said as he turned around from preparing Jumba's breakfast. "Young earthlings need at least 8 hours of sleep each night; it says so in my human biology texts."

"I know, I just couldn't sleep, okay?" Lilo said as she got up from the table. She grabbed her book bag and headed out the door. Stitch, after quickly finishing his eggs, did the same as he hurried to catch up to his girlfriend.

He caught up with her just as she reached the bus stop. "Lilo, are you okay? Is something else bothering you?" Stitch said as he put his arm on her shoulder.

She sighed softly. "You always could see right thru me, couldn't you? Yeah, something's wrong. I keep having nightmares, and every night they just get worse. At first I just heard her voice, but then last night…"

"Last night what? What happened Lilo? What did you dream about?"

"I dreamt of fire and chaos, of her laughter and the screams of countless people. I saw her slaughter a bunch of strange creatures, aliens I guess. Then I heard her voice again. That she was coming to Earth, and that she was going to kill me. And you."

"Lilo, it's okay. It was just a dream. She can't come back. She was a part of you brought out by Angel's song, a part you sealed away when you broke free of that song." Stitch said as he embraced her.

"But what about the dream you had? The night before it happened? And did Jumba say she could be cloned or something? Hamsterville is still out there, and I wouldn't put it past him to try something like that."

Stitch didn't have an answer for that. The dream he had that time did foreshadow what happened that next day. And they had received word that the ship Hamsterville had been on had been destroyed, but that he might have escaped. But how could even Hamsterville be so stupid as to try and recreate something that tried to kill him?

The two stood in silence as the bus pulled up to the stop and they got on. They would have a lot to talk about when they got home, but first came school and the fallout from Operation Splashdown. Principal Tanner might not remember that they were responsible for it, but that didn't mean that he and his friends were not the primary suspects.

Meanwhile, a confrontation was going to be had at the Evan's residence. Their mother had gone out early that morning for a doctor's appointment, leaving Richie in the clutches of his vengeful sister. He had managed to sneak most of his stuff, including his Yu-gi-oh deck, into a second backpack before his sister woke up. Although he'd only been living with his sister for about 8 months, he could read her body language, and he knew he was in trouble. She found out about his going thru her room and reading her diary.

Just as he was trying to sneak out the door, he felt someone grab him by the collar. "So you thought you could read my diary and get away with it, did you?" Myrtle then flung him back into the house. "Well now Mom's not here to protect you. And you are going to pay for going thru my stuff."

"I wouldn't have to go thru your stuff if you'd quit stealing mine!" Richie cried in his defense.

"That's no excuse for looking in my diary! And I told you to stop drawing pictures of Victoria, just get her off your mind. Because it's not going to happen."

"Why, cause you want me to date one of your airhead friends?" Richie shouted, in a rare act of defiance. This somewhat surprised Myrtle. She supposed that hanging around Jason was having some positive effect on her brother, which wasn't a bad thing. She wanted him to grow a spine, but the fact was she was still mad at him, and that he was courting with disaster. His dating Victoria would lead to him hanging around Lilo more, and that would only lead to trouble. She wasn't about to let her only sibling hang around a monster.

"I don't care who you date, just as long as they have nothing to do with Weirdlo. I want you to stay away from her and her friends." Myrtle snapped.

"Why, because you think she and her family are aliens? You're crazy!" Richie spat back, not knowing what he had said.

"Listen you…wait did you say she and her family? I never wrote about her." Her eyes narrowed. "You knew before, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! I just quoted you." Richie said in an attempt to cover his slip up.

Myrtle grabbed his collar again and got in his face. "What do you know Richie? I want to hear details, right now. Or so help me."

"Let me go!" Richie cried as he tried to get free of his sister's grip.

"Tell me what you know or you're going to 'accidentally' leave something valuable where Gigi can get at it. Understand?" Myrtle said with a threatening tone. And her brother said she was crazy. He was the one who was hanging around dangerous alien freaks willingly.

Richie felt afraid. His sister was insane with anger. But he knew he couldn't tell his sister what she wanted to know, she could destroy Lilo and Stitch with it. He wouldn't betray his friends, no matter what his sister did.

Suddenly, Myrtle seemed to calm down. She even let go of her brother's shirt. "So I guess we both know she's an alien." She looked at her brother with sympathic eyes. "I know you want to protect Chris, and I can't blame you. That's why we have to reveal the truth, so he can know what she really is. It isn't nice for her to lie to him like that."

Richie was somewhat eased at the fact that Myrtle didn't know the whole truth, but he figured he could reveal something and throw his sister off. He met her eyes, and with the first stern look he'd ever given anyone, he said "He knows, and he doesn't care."

This seemed to set his sister off again. "What do you mean he knows? How can he love something like that?"

"Because he understands how to love, unlike you. You're why Jason left you, not Lilo. He told me himself. You pretended to own him, to control him. Lilo and Chris accept each other for who they are, no matter what."

Myrtle wasn't going to listen to any more of this. She reared back to punch her brother, when something caught her fist. "Now, now, it's not nice for family to fight."

Myrtle scowled. It was Knuckles. With Jason right behind him. Jason immediately got between Myrtle and Richie, acting as a human shield. "You amaze me at just how selfish you are. You were ready to hit your own brother, and why, cause he snuck a peek at your diary?"

This made Myrtle even madder. "You told Jason what was in my diary!" Knuckles had to struggle to hold the enraged female back; she was ready to tear into Richie. "How could you do that to me? Your own sister!"

"He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Apparently, you keep a very boring diary." Jason replied as he took Richie by the arm.

Myrtle smiled innerly. _No, I think he didn't tell you because he didn't want you to know Weirdlo's little secret. This is interesting. Why is Richie trying to protect Lilo? Or is he?_ Then it hit Myrtle like a ton of bricks, and she couldn't help but smile.

"What are you smiling about?" Jason asked as he motioned Richie to get out the door.

"Oh, just what I'm going to do to Richie's stuff when I get home." Myrtle replied.

"You won't be doing anything. Knuckles, how long do we have until the bus gets here?"

"About 10 minutes, why?" Knuckles asked as he released Myrtle, figuring that at least Richie had a head start.

"Get my science project out of the box. We're going to put Richie's cards and notebooks in it."

"And your project?" Knuckles asked.

"Is late anyway. What's one more day? I'll run my project home and hide it in the garage. Meanwhile, you and Richie pack the stuff up in the box. We will take it to school and when the teacher asks, I'll say I got the boxes mixed up."

"And then I'll tell him the truth." Myrtle replied snidely.

"And then you'll have to admit you were going to destroy his stuff. Not good for your reputation?"

Myrtle scowled. She had to admit, one of the qualities that attracted her to Jason in the first place was his cunning. But she had won the greater victory. Richie wasn't trying to protect Lilo; he was trying to protect Chris. She had always thought it funny that his nickname was the same as Lilo's weird alien friend. Now she had found reason to believe that they were one and the same.

"Why are you still smiling?" Jason inquired as he Knuckles brought him the box.

"Oh, nothing you need to worry about."

The first part of the day had gone well enough, except for Jason taking it upon himself to stop a couple of first graders from picking on another one.

"Hey, why don't you three leave that boy alone?" Jason asked as he grabbed the ringleader on the shoulder and pulled him away.

"Why don't you mind your own business? Chance is a freak who talks to himself all the time." The boy responded.

"Yeah, he's creepy. And he never plays with any of the other kids. Thinks he's better than us. He just stares at the sky all day." Another boy followed up.

Knuckles came to back Jason up, and the kids began to back off. Despite being a bit on the slim side, he was still an imposing figure to the smaller children. After the other first graders left, the small boy got up from the ground.

"Are you ok kid?" Jason said as he reached for the boy's hand to help him up.

"I'm ok. Josh Nickerson just has a lot of problems at home. His daddy drinks a lot."

The fact that this child knew something that personal about his tormentor was extremely odd. "How do you know that?" Jason asked.

However, the little boy didn't bother to answer. Instead he picked up his hat and back pack and started to walk away. He turned to face the two older boys. "Thanks Jason and Knuckles! Be careful!"

That was a rather weird way to start the day, but the rest of the day went normally enough, until just before lunch that is. The four boys had been listening to a rather boring speech on life on other planets, and what scientists thought the odds were. Stitch knew the figures were way off, Knuckles was fiddling with his PDA, Richie was worried about what had transpired earlier that day, and what might happen later. Jason was asleep.

"Will Christopher Strikerson, Alex Travers, and Jason Walbridge please report to the vice principal's office." The loudspeaker boomed, getting everyone's attention.

Stitch began to sweat slightly. Even though he was used to getting into trouble, before he had been untouchable. Now he was a student who could get expelled, or worse.

Knuckles wasn't worried, however. He knew the drill. They'd get called into the office. The Principal wouldn't have any proof, and they'd get let off with a warning.

Jason, typical to fashion, merely looked up and replied. "We have a new vice-principal?"

"Jason, Chris, Alex, I suppose you should head to the office. I've met the new vice principal, and he's not the kind of man that I would keep waiting." The teacher said, sounding somewhat sympathic, as if he was really scared of him.

Myrtle just sing-songed. "Somebody's in big trouble."

"Aww, shut it, harpy." Jason replied. He wasn't quite sure what a harpy was, but he was pretty sure it that Myrtle fit the bill.

Richie just looked on worried. He knew that they wouldn't turn him in, but he was worried for them. He was worried they would get expelled and he'd never see them again. Then he would be at his sister's mercy.

As the three boys walked down the hall, Jason whistled a happy tune, indicating that he wasn't worried what so ever.

"Do you think they're on to us?" Stitch asked.

"I don't think so. Principal Tanner can speculate all he wants, but without proof or an admission, he'd just be blowing steam." Knuckles replied as the trio reached the office.

"Yeah, don't worry about it dude. Me and Knuckles have been thru this before. It's no big deal."

As the trio came upon the vice principal's office, another child was already walking out. Jason and Knuckles recognized him as the boy from earlier, who had been picking on the other little boy. The kid looked all shaken up and tense. The voice that came from the door gave a good reason why.

"And I'd better not hear of you bothering Chance Gleeson, again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes…yes sir." The boy replied, not taking his eyes off the man behind the door.

The voice was instantly recognizable to all three boys, and all three began to sweat.

_Please don't let that be Cobra, please don't let that be Cobra. _Stitch repeated in his mind over and over.

_Aww, crud. Now this isn't playing fair! When did we end up with Ex-CIA as disciplinarians? _Jason turned to Knuckles. "Dude, since when did you uncle become a vice-principal?"

Someone else, however, answered his question. "As of yesterday. Now step into my office."

Stitch couldn't remember the last time he was so afraid, but he and the others did as they were told. The inside of the office had changed quite a bit since the last time they were there. The old vice principal had kept a lot of odd stuff around her office, like golden apple candy holders, wooden pencil boxes, and various photos of family. Now the office had a far more spartan look about it. Nothing was on the walls, the desk was clear, and the shelves had nothing more than a few small boxes.

"Sit down." Cobra said in his normal tone. As the three boys silently did as they were told, Cobra reached beneath the desk to pull out three files. He opened each and glanced over them quickly, already familiar with the contents.

"Christopher Strikerson. Transferred from Beloit, Wisconsin. File seems rather clear, although I personally know better." Cobra said as he met Stitch's eyes, causing him to fidget in his chair.

"Alexander Malcolm Travers. Another clean record. And again, I know better." Cobra said as he turned to face his nephew. Unlike Stitch, Knuckles didn't even flinch under his uncle's gaze.

"And finally, Jason Alan Walbridge." Jason's file was a lot thicker than the other two, almost two inches. "15 detentions in the past two years. Had I be vice principal at that time, you would have already been gone." Jason gave the new vice principal a definite stare. He knew he couldn't prove any of it. At least, he hoped.

Cobra put the files back under his desk and returned his gaze to the three boys. "It seems that Principal Tanner suspects you of yesterday's paint bombing of the school board. However, he has until now produced no evidence supporting his claim, and I cannot punish you if there is no proof you were involved."

The three boys gave a collective sigh of relief. But Cobra wasn't finished yet.

"However, I can assure you that no one will be able to escape my scrutiny, so I would advise you to be on your best behavior. And to ensure that, I will be separating the three of you."

"What? Why? What did we do?" Jason blurted out, only to be silenced by another gaze from Cobra.

"Because although Tanner has no proof of what you did, I am well aware of what you three are capable of. Effective as soon as you leave my office, Christopher, you will report to Room 213, Alexander, you will report to 111. Jason will return to your normal classroom, along with this note, stating that your class will be short 3 students."

"Wait, if Jason is going back to our old room, then who's the third." Stitch asked, relieved that he wasn't going to get kicked out. In fact, this wasn't all that bad. 213 was the classroom Lilo was in, meaning he'd get to spend the day with her like he had originally wanted to.

"Richard Evans is also to be relocated to Room 213. School policy states that family members are not to share the same class room, and I have reason to believe that his sister may be a determent to his learning. At least, that's why you brought a box of his things to school instead of a science project."

No one was surprised that Cobra knew that. Knuckle and Stitch were never surprised that Cobra knew things, and Jason was just glad that Richie wouldn't have to face his sister alone at school.

"Now, I will not tolerate any more inappropriate behavior out of any of you, do you understand?"

Jason nodded. Stitch replied with an "Okay" and Knuckles with a "Yes sir."

As the three rose from their seats, Cobra tapped Knuckles on the shoulder. "Alexander, I want you to remain after the other's leave."

"Yes sir. What is it?" he replied as Cobra shut the door.

"Sit down." His uncle replied.

Knuckles did as he was told as Cobra also sat down. "Alexander, I know why you have been going along with all this."

"I don't understand, sir. What do you mean?" Knuckles replied. Even though his uncle was rather cryptic at time, he usually understood what he meant.

"You've been trying to prove yourself. By pulling elaborate pranks and not getting caught, you've been trying to prove that you are ready to follow in my footsteps. Even though I've advised against it time and again, you still try to prove that you've got what it takes."

Cobra then reached beneath his desk and took out a stack of papers that were stapled together. Knuckles looked at the cover. It was an application to military school. The same one his uncle had graduated from years ago. Most kids would have freaked out, but a smile appeared on Knuckles face. He'd finally proved to himself to his uncle.

"You're the only reason your friends haven't been expelled. Your planning is most likely the reason no evidence has been found to implicate you or your friends. So here is the deal: you stay out of trouble for the rest of the year, and next year I will personally recommend you to the academy. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes Sir!" Knuckles yelled out.

"I'm glad we have an understanding. You are dismissed."

Lilo had been unable to sit still for the past twenty minutes. Ever since she heard Stitch's name over the intercom, she feared the worst. Her mind had raced with all sorts of thoughts: had Stitch gotten caught, had he gotten expelled? Had he been arrested for vandalism? The more she tried to push the thoughts out of her mind, the stronger the fear became. She had been so wrapped up in her worries that she had not noticed the knock on the door, or the teacher getting up to answer it, only to go outside for at least five minutes. When the teacher finally returned, her voice brought Lilo out of her thoughts.

"Class, I know that this is unusual, but we have two students that have been transferred to our class. As in transferred I mean from another class in this school. Apparently one of the classrooms had a few too many students, and the new vice-principal decided to transfer them to this room."

This was the cue for Richie and Stitch to enter the room. While most of the class looked on in disinterest, Lilo had a look of surprise and relief, while Victoria turned her head down as not to make eye contact with Richie.

"Please take a seat in any empty chair." The teacher said as the two boys made their way into the room.

Stitch immediately saw the empty seat next to Lilo, and took it. But that left Richie with just one seat to take, and it was right across from Victoria. He immediately became skiddish, but resigned himself to the fact he would have to sit there anyway. Victoria's eyes followed him the entire way to his seat, but then turned away before he could look at her.

Stitch had already sat down and watched the pair with amusement before turning to his own girlfriend. He noticed the note she was trying to pass him, and he quickly snatched it up while the teacher wasn't looking. He unfolded the paper under his desk and read the note.

_Stitch, what happened in the vice principal's office? Why are you in my classroom now? Did you get in trouble? Did someone find out? Did Cobra find out?_

Stitch had to roll his eyes. He wasn't sure who their relationship had changed more, him or Lilo. He had to admit he'd become a lot less wild than he was a year ago, a lot more 'civil' as Pleakly put it. But the change in Lilo was so apparent that even Jason noticed it, which given his attention span, was a feat in of itself. She'd become a lot more like her sister in many ways: she worried a lot, she was always on to him, and she had become more 'mature', as Nani was prone to say. _But how much of that was us falling in love, and how much was what happened?_ Stitch thought to himself. Meanwhile Lilo kept looking back and forth at him, as if waiting for a response. He figured he'd better give her one. He quickly jotted his replies to her questions at the bottom of the paper, folded it back up, and waited for the teacher to turn back to the blackboard.

When Lilo got the note back, she quickly unfolded it.

_It's okay Lilo, I'm not in any trouble. But me and the guys really need to behave ourselves because we won't be able to get away with anything now. The vice principal separated us because he "knows what where capable of" You might need to lay low too, and stop using your powers around school._

_Knows what your capable of? What the heck does he mean by that?_ Lilo thought as she penned another set of questions. She then tried to pass it back to Stitch, but he wouldn't take it. After several attempts, Lilo gave Stitch a dirty look and pocketed the note. _What's with him? Why wouldn't he take the note? It's not like the teacher would catch him, she wouldn't notice if Noisy walked in here right now and started reading out of her diary!_

She didn't have to wait long, because the teacher dismissed the class just a few minutes later for lunch. As the class started to head toward the lunch room, she grabbed him on the shoulder and pulled him aside. "What was with you in class?" she said in a stern tone.

"I knew what you were going to ask, and I couldn't answer you in class." Stitch replied as he leaned against one of the lockers.

"Why not?" Lilo said, wondering what was so shocking that Stitch had wanted to wait. The fact that he'd even thought that far ahead in his actions would have been a surprise a year ago, but Lilo knew that their relationship, along with a few other events, had caused both of them to mature. That and Lilo had discovered from her research that the serum created for Stitch actually caused him to become more human, and less bound to his experiment programming.

Stitch just gave her an impish smile. "Turn around."

"What?" Lilo said, puzzled by his response. But she did as she was told, and nearly fainted at who was right behind her.

"Hello Lilo. I trust you're keeping out of trouble?" Cobra said in his normal tone. He was without his shades, but other than that, he had his normal attire, which seemed much more expensive than what the other adults at the school wore.

"Umm…hi Cobra. What are you doing here?" Lilo stammered out.

"I work here, thanks in no small part to the paintbombing yesterday." Cobra replied.

"Oh, ok, so you're the new Vice Principal?" Lilo said, attempting to make small talk.

"Yes, apparently the last one left due to some hurtful comments a former student made. Comments that most people would only say when they're furious." He then did his famous narrow gaze. "Funny how calm he was when he said them, right to her face."

Lilo grew nervous under his scrutiny. "Yeah, that sure was weird, but that guy was a real jerk."

"You knew this from first hand experience, then?" Cobra replied, not taking his gaze off her.

"Well, everybody heard of how mean he was." Lilo said as she tried to cover up the fact that she had made him say those things.

Stitch came to her rescue. "Well, we have to get to lunch. It was nice talking to you Vice Principal. We'll make sure we stay out of trouble." He said as he grabbed Lilo's shoulder and started to pull her along.

"See that you do that. And Ms. Peliaki? No more of what you did yesterday, understand?"

Lilo nearly fainted, as Stitch had to catch her. "Yesss sir." She stammered back as Cobra turned around to walk away.

"Lilo, are you okay?" Stitch said as he pulled her back up.

"Now I know why you didn't answer me in class. I'm not sure if I would have fainted or screamed." She said as she righted herself. "He knows everything we've done since we started school here, and if he had to actually take a job here to watch us, we must be on our last strike." Lilo said sadly. She turned to look Stitch in the eyes. "What are we gonna do?"

"Calm down, I think its just as much Jason and Knuckles as it is us. Principal Tanner was probably desperate for help with them, and someone probably had connections and…"

Lilo put her finger to his mouth to stop his talking. "I know you are just trying to make me feel better, but lets face it, everything changed when you and I started dating." She sighed as she laid her head on his chest. "It was easier back then, when we first met, when we started catching experiments. I was just a weird little kid, one that nobody took seriously. I could scream about aliens all day, and I would just get ignored."

"You'd probably still get ignored. Except by me." Stitch replied.

"Quit trying to sweet talk me. This is serious. The fact that is I'm not a normal girl anymore and I have a big secret to hide." She looked up at Stitch's face. "Several of them."

Stitch smiled in response. Then he said something that had been on his mind for quite a while. "You know, you've become a lot more like your sister recently."

Lilo gave Stitch a look. "And what do you mean by that." She tired to pull herself away from him, but he wouldn't let go.

"You've been worried a lot more. And you just seem to take some things differently than you used to."

"I guess the old me wouldn't have nearly fainted because of Cobra, huh. It's just I was so scared, Stitch. He has complete control over our lives. If he was to tell someone in the government about then…"

It was Stitch's turn to shush Lilo. "He'd never do that Lilo. You know that. He wants to keep us out of trouble, and keep us from being discovered. You need to stop worrying so much, and go back to being the happy girl you were before."

Lilo gave him an impish grin of her own. "You know what would make me happy right now?"

"I think I have an idea." Stitch replied as he leaned in to kiss her right on the lips. The pair held their kiss until they heard the "ahem" of a teacher. The quickly broke apart, embarrassed.

"Well, I guess we better get going, huh Stitch?" Lilo said.

"Yeah, we need to get moving if we don't want to miss lunch. And Richie's probably worried sick. He might think I'm in trouble again."

"Oh, I don't know. He might be occupied with a certain someone else at the moment."

Richie had looked for Stitch for over ten minutes, but couldn't find him anywhere. "Where is he? I wonder what's taking him so long."

"Lilo's not here either, so I have a pretty good idea." Victoria said from her seat. "Why don't you sit down? I'm sure they'll be here soon."

Richie sat down without even thinking about it, but his heart started to race as soon as he looked at her. Victoria noticed his blushing and started to blush herself. The pair quickly broke eye contact.

While his eyes wandered around the table, they met with a deck of cards. Yu-gi-oh cards. "You play Yu-gi-oh?" Richie asked, looking back up at Victoria.

"Yeah, I'm entering in a tournament this weekend." Victoria replied as she picked up the deck.

"You too? The one at Mike's Hobbies?" Richie replied as he took his deck out of his pocket.

"Yeah. It's my first time playing in a tournament." Victoria said as she put her deck back in her pocket.

"Not me, I've gone there every weekend since I moved to the island." Richie said, excited that he and the girl he had a crush on shared a hobby.

"Really? I've only been in there a few times, when I was babysitting Chance. He loves to play. And he always wins."

"You're kidding? How old is this kid?" Richie exclaimed. He had heard rumors that a little kid had once came into the shop and defeated several adults, but all of them denied it. Of course it might have just been someone else making up stories.

"He's seven years old. He lives down the street, and I sometimes watch him for his parents. Anyway, I decided I'd play in a tournament to get better, cause it's kind of embarrassing when a kid beats you in strategy game."

"Wow, you actually called it a strategy game." Richie said. "Myrtle never calls it that. She says it's a stupid waste of time."

"Yeah, well Myrtle's a stupid waste of air." Victoria replied. "Why do you listen to her? Tell me the truth; I know it isn't because she's trying to help you."

"Because she get's mad if I don't. And then my stuff goes missing."

Victoria became livid. "WHAT? She steals your stuff? Why don't you tell your mom, Richie, and make her stop?"

"Because she always has some excuse. 'Richie took that to school with him and probably lost it, Richie left it down and Gigi got it' she has a million of them. And Mom believes every one of them." Richie said angrily, suddenly fed up with how his sister was treating him.

"That's just wrong. You need to find some way to get back at her." Victoria said her voice full of anger and concern. There was no doubt about it: she hated Myrtle, and had for years. The fact that she could treat her own family like that was just the icing to the cake. In there anger for a common enemy, their eyes met again, and there faces began to draw closer to one another. With just a few inches to go, a voice shook them out of their trance, and they both turned pink after realizing how close they had come to kissing.

"Hey Richie, where's Chris? And what are you doing?" Knuckles called out from across the cafeteria.

"Uuh, nothing." He replied, embarrassed.

"Right, and Jason's the smartest person in school." Was his sarcastic reply.

"HEY, I heard that!" came another voice from behind Knuckles. "And you couldn't have waited 10 seconds more to say hello, could you dude? You just had to ruin the moment."

"That's funny; normally that's your job." Knuckles replied to Jason as Jason rose from his seat.

"I know, and you didn't let me do it." Jason replied. He then turned to the two seated at the table. "Hey Richie, what were you doing, whispering secrets out of your sister's diary? And you didn't invite me? I'm hurt."

"I wasn't telling secrets out of my sister's diary, Jason. Me and Victoria were just talking about the upcoming card tournament." Richie replied, which caused Knuckles to extend his palm toward Jason.

"I told you girls play Yu-gi-oh. You owe me 5 bucks." Knuckles said with a smirk.

Jason mumbled in anger to himself. "Fine." He took out a five dollar bill and put it in Knuckles hand.

However, Victoria wasn't paying attention to any of that. "You read your sister's diary?" she exclaimed.

"He sure did, but he said there wasn't anything interesting in it. Myrtle's such an airhead, she wouldn't know something cool if it bit her on the butt." Jason said as he plopped down next to Richie.

"There was interesting things in it, Jason." Knuckles said as he sat down on Richie's other side. "About you, anyway."

"Shut up, Knuckles!" Jason replied, silently cursing the fact that Knuckles had positioned himself on the other side of Richie.

"Oh, did she detail your one week wild fling in there?" Victoria said with a smirk.

"As well as her obsession with blaming Lilo for their breakup." Richie added.

"What won't she blame Lilo for? What did she threaten this time, to ruin her reputation in school so she could never get a boyfriend?" Victoria replied, again starting to show her contempt for Myrtle.

"Well, sort of." Richie said, not really hiding the fact that he knew more than he let on.

"Wait; did she say what she had planned?" Victoria said, noticing Richie's uneasiness.

Fortunately for Richie, at that moment Lilo and Stitch came up to the table. "Hey everybody, what's up?" Lilo asked as she sat down next to Victoria.

"Richie was just about to reveal some secrets from Myrtle's diary." Jason replied as Stitch sat down next to him.

"You were?" Lilo said, looking at Richie in interest. "What did you find out?"

Richie sighed, he'd have to tell them now, at least, some of it. "My sister is insane. I mean really crazy. She wrote some of the weirdest stuff in there about you family, Lilo, and how she was going to revel your secrets to everybody."

This gave everyone pause, except for Jason that is, who had no idea what was going on. "What kind of secrets Richie?"

"Ahem, I'm right here you know, and I rather not have any of my secrets spilled." Lilo retorted.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Jason replied.

"Well, that's just too bad, Weirdlo, because pretty soon EVERYBODY is going to know your secrets."

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. "Myrtle." Lilo said in a sneering voice.

"Hello freaks." Myrtle said in a snide tone. "Richie, what have I told you about hanging around with these two. You keep this up and…"

"And you'll what, feed his Mp3 player to your dog, or steal his homework and tear it up?" Victoria interrupted.

"You stay out of this. I bet you don't know half of the deep, dark secrets Lilo and her boyfriend have. But you will, everyone will very soon." As Myrtle said this, she looked at Lilo with a stare of intense disgust.

But everyone was in for a surprise. "I won't let you." Richie said as he stood up to meet his sister's gaze.

"What did you say?" Myrtle said in surprise.

"I said I will stop you. You have no right to reveal other people's secrets, especially when you don't know the whole truth yourself." Richie replied in a defiant tone.

Myrtle turned beet red. How dare her brother talk to her like that? Why was he defending freaks like those two? How could side with them over his own blood? She turned to see Victoria looking at Richie with a look of loving admiration. _She's why he's doing it. He'd do anything to impress Victoria, even protect monstrous alien freaks! Well I'll show her. _

"Don't even think of looking at my brother like that. I don't care how much he likes you; it's never going to happen. I don't care how many lies I have to tell my mom and dad, you will never date my brother. He's too good for you, wither he knows it or not."

This set off several people at once. Victoria shot up from her seat, ready to knock Myrtle into next week. Lilo had to grab a hold of her to keep her from jumping over the table. "Let me at her, just one punch."

Jason starting yelling so loud, the entire cafeteria could hear him. "Why do you care who your brother goes out with. What is wrong with you?"

Meanwhile, Richie kept his defiant look. "See, that's why Jason broke up with you, you're a bitch."

Everyone turned to look at Richie. Myrtle's eyes went wide. "What…what did you just call me?"

Even Jason was speechless. No one had ever seen Richie that mad before, and they had never heard him cuss.

"You heard me. And I'm done taking orders from you. You aren't the boss of me like you are of your little cronies."

Myrtle looked like she was ready to explode. Richie was a dead man; nobody called her that and got away with it. But before she could take out her anger, someone stepped in.

"Excuse me, is there something going on here that I need to look into?" Cobra said as he looked over the chaos: Lilo still had a hold on Victoria, Richie and Myrtle seemed to be in a staring contest, and Jason was not only out of his seat, he had been screaming loud enough for the entire school to hear.

"Umm…no sir, there is nothing wrong here." Lilo said as she let go of Victoria.

"Nope, nothing at all. Just having a friendly talk." Myrtle said with a fake smile.

"I'm not sure who your last vice principal was, but I'm not going to fall for that. You, Ms. Evans, are to stay away from your brother at school, and I will be speaking to your parents. As for the rest of you, you'd better show more restraint, or you'll be spending a month in detention, at the least. Now I believe you need to be heading to class."

"Yes sir." Was the group's reply.

When Cobra turned to leave, Myrtle shot Richie a dirty look and whispered "This isn't over." Then she turned her gaze to Lilo and Stitch. "And I'd watch your backs, freaks, because I'm on to you." Her last gaze was directed at Victoria. It was a hateful glare and simple muttering of words no one could make out, but her lips were easily read.

"Why you little…" Victoria said as she shot up to try and lunge at the redhead, only to be restrained by Lilo.

"Cool it, Victoria, she's not worth it." Jason said as he stood up. "Trust me, I know from first hand experience."

"Let's get to class before we're late. See you guys after school." Stitch said as he and Richie left their trays at the counter. Although he looked calm, inside he was tense. Myrtle knew. She knew everything. About Lilo, about himself. And nothing would stop her from trying to reveal them. But he had to proud of Richie. He stood up to her, even though Myrtle might try and take revenge.

Lilo was just as nervous, but also proud. Proud of Victoria. She was becoming more open with her feelings, and she and Richie might admit it to each other at anytime. But even there, Myrtle was still a threat. Myrtle was capable of telling outlandish lies, and her clones would always back what she said. She could say some really bad things about Victoria, and Myrtle's mom might not let Richie hang out with her anymore.

In any case, nothing could be done right now. Classes had to be attended, tests had to be taken. And this would go on for the next several days, the tense encounters between Lilo and Myrtle. After all, Cobra had said Myrtle couldn't go anywhere near her brother, he said nothing about Lilo. All that time she would drop hints that she had evidence, that she was poised to destroy her and Stitch. Lilo was unsure if she was to be believed, she might be trying to make Lilo make a mistake, or she might have the info, and just be waiting for the right time.

The situation with Richie and Victoria was a lot better. Apparently Cobra had wasted no time in contacting Myriam Evans about her daughter's behavior, so when Myrtle came home, telling lies about how Richie had gotten involved with a 'bad girl', she was merely sent to her room for lying. This made her no less angry at Richie, however, but she was more concerned about ruining Lilo's life. She'd deal with her brother and that little tramp later. Meanwhile Richie and Victoria were all excited about the upcoming tournament, and spent most of lunch talking about it. And Lilo and Stitch had noticed that the number of shy glances between the two had increased, almost to the point that when one turned away, the other started looking. It wouldn't be long now, and it was something happy for the pair, to see new love start to bloom, even when they themselves were in danger.

Jason had been bugging Knuckles ever since the first incident, saying that there was something he wasn't being told. "There's something you guys are keeping from me, and I wanna know what's up."

"Trust me, Jason, its best you are in the dark. I'm not even sure what Myrtle is talking about, but it can't be good." Knuckles replied, for the fifth time.

"Everyone else seems to be in the know, how come I'm not?" Jason whined, impatient with his friend. Knuckles had never kept anything from him before, except when it came to his uncle, anyway, so this had to be serious.

"I'm not sure what anyone knows. But this is not our business." Knuckles replied, trying to end the discussion.

"It's not because it's your uncle's, isn't it?" Jason wasn't sure what was so serious with his friend to get the CIA involved, but Knuckle's uncle had been taking a healthy interest in all this.

"Jason, I'm telling you, drops it." Knuckles said as he walked into his classroom. "Now I'll see you at lunch. And please knock it off with the conspiracy theories."

Jason walked away dejected. But he wasn't about to give up. Something was eating away at Chris and Lilo. It was something Myrtle knew, and Jason had a suspicion that Victoria and Richie knew too. Whatever it was, he'd have to find out, and stop Myrtle from getting the evidence she needed. Cause nobody messes with Jason Walbridge's friends.

Not even the girl he's still in love with.

End Chapter 9

Next Chapter

Last Good Day


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch and I didn't invent the Yu-gi-oh card game played in this chapter.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 10

Last Good Day

The weekend had finally come, and Richie was brimming with excitement. Today would be the day he would finally win a tournament, and the girl of his dreams would be there to watch him do it. He got up early and ran out the door, barely having time to say good bye to his mother, who was in the den doing aerobics. He got to the store in record time, it wasn't even open yet, but the owner was already there, and having known Richie for all the other weeks he had come in early, he let him in.

"Hey, Richie, you're earlier than usual." Michael said as he unlocked the door.

"I'm really excited about today. I built a new deck last week; one that I'm sure will win me the tournament." Richie replied as he walked inside.

"It should, after all the time and effort you spent trying to put it together." Jon called out from the back of the store, where he was setting up extra tables. "How long did it take you to get a hold of those cards?"

"A couple of months. But it was worth it."

Richie took a seat in the back while Mike and Jon continued to get ready to open. Mike's Hobbies had been on the island for about 3 years, when Michael moved from the mainland. He saw the lack of places that the average gamer could hang out, so he decided to open a game store with another friend, Jon, who had lived on the island previously.

Less than an hour passed when someone knocked at the door. It was still too early for anyone to show up, and Mike looked out the window to see a small blond-headed child. He immediately turned and yelled. "Jon, the kid got out again."

Jon put down what he was doing and sighed. "3…2…1…" Right after one, the phone rang. Jon picked up the receiver. "Hello Aunt Betty… Yes, Chance is right outside…No, that's alright, I'll bring him home. The store won't open for at least another thirty minutes…Alright, see you in fifteen."

Jon put down the receiver and went to open the door, where he was greeted by the little boy. "Hi Jon!"

"Chance, how many times have you been told not to leave the house without letting your mom and dad know where you are?" Jon stated as the little boy walked in the store.

"I dunno, five? Anyway, I need to talk to you." Chance said as he looked up at the poster announcing today's event.

"For the last time Chance, the tournaments are for kids 8 and older, you know that. You can play when your birthday comes up. We'll even make sure we'll hold one that day. Okay?"

Chance looked up at Jon with a look he didn't like. It almost looked as if the boy was afraid. "Chance, is something wrong?" Jon asked.

"It's about that." Was the boy's reply.

Jon sighed again as he turned to his partner. "Mike, I'm going to take Chance home. I should be back by tournament time."

"Should be? The tournament's in 2 hours, how long does it take you to take the kid home?" Mike replied as he looked up from the register.

"He has a name Mike. And he needs to talk to me about something." Jon replied, somewhat angry.

"Alright, don't worry about. I'll see you when you get back." Mike said as he shut the register. "Owen ought to be here in a minute anyway, ready to go on about what he saw on TV last night, or the newest anime, or what have you, like always."

As if on cue, a larger man stepped thru the doors. "Hey guys! You'll never guess what I saw last night." He then turned to look down Chance. "He get away from his parents again? I swear, as dotting as your aunt and uncle are Jon, they sure can't keep track of their boy." Owen said as he patted Chance on the head.

"He's got wanderlust, just like his cousin." Mike said as he picked up a box from under the counter.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to take the little adventurer home. See you guys in a bit." Jon said as he took Chance's hand.

To everyone's surprise, Chance turned around to look at Richie. He stared at him for a second, as if confirming his identity, when he said "You must be Victoria's boyfriend!"

Richie turned red as a beet, while Owen broke out in laughter, and Jon put his hand on his forehead. "Chance, what have I told you about those kinds of outbursts?"

"But it's true. His name is Richie and Victoria gets really funny when she talks about him."

Before Jon can even say anything, Chance points to Richie's card box, which has his full name on it.

"I told you Mike, the Force is strong with this one!" Owen said as he was able to stop laughing.

"Don't start Owen. It's too early for this." Was Mike's only reply.

"Okay, that's enough Chance. We need to talk, remember?" Jon said as he looked down at the boy.

"Yeah, you're right." Chance replied as his tone became somber. "It's important."

As the two left the store, Owen took a seat near Mike, where he had forgotten all about what has just transpired, and went off on a list of topics from primetime TV to computer games. Mike just listened as he continued his work, adding or correcting information when he saw fit. Richie, however, could not get over what that boy had said. He was undoubtedly the same boy Victoria would often baby-sit. Did he know something about Victoria, about her feelings? Maybe he got into her diary and read it. In any case, this strengthened his resolve in the end. If Victoria liked him, perhaps he could win more than a tournament today.

Meanwhile, the topic drifted as someone else entered the store. "I hope I'm not too early." The brown haired girl asked as she walked in the door.

"Naw, we just opened for business. The tournament won't be for another hour or so, but feel free to just hang around." Mike said as he glanced over to the door. He didn't recognize her, but Owen did, and proceeded to let Richie know. In the most embarrassing way possible.

"Hey, kid. Your girlfriend's here." he said, causing Richie to shoot up, almost out of his chair. Owen just snickered. "A little jumpy there?"

Victoria saw Richie, and Richie saw Victoria. Both turned pink in embarrassment. Mike meanwhile popped Owen on the head.

"Oww, what was that for?" Owen asked.

"Just because a seven year old screams something, doesn't make it true. Now quit teasing them." Mike replied.

"Yeah, we're just friends." Victoria said as she sat down on the other end of the table from Richie.

"Yeah, what she said." Richie said, although he was disheartened by it.

"I don't know. Chance isn't an ordinary seven year old." Owen replied.

"Chance was here? He said that?" Victoria stuttered out. _Oh great. Richie already knows that I watch Chance regularly. Why did he have to scream out that I loved Richie right to his face? I'm not sure I'm ready yet. But I guess it's now or never. I have to do it today. I have to tell him I like him._

Meanwhile Mike had replied to Owen. "No, Chance isn't ordinary. He's about as far from ordinary as a kid can get."

Owen just had to laugh. "Nope, but that's a good thing."

"It is?" Mike replied. "The boy gets up in the middle of the night to climb on the rooftop. He shows up here at odd hours pestering Jon. And I swear that kid talks to himself."

"A lot of people do that." Richie said, now becoming interested in the conversation.

"And answer themselves too." Owen added.

"Yeah, but I've watched him sit in a corner for hours, talking to himself every now and then. I really think that kid thinks someone is there." Mike said as he started to pull items out of a box to shelve.

"It's called an imaginary friend. A lot of kids have them." Victoria replied. Richie could tell by her tone of voice that she didn't like the topic of conversation.

"Listen, I say we drop this now. Jon doesn't like it when people talk about Chance." Mike said as he continued shelving.

_He doesn't like it when people talk about Chance like he's a freak_ Victoria thought to herself. Chance has trouble at school with bullies; his parents have him in and out of therapy, and almost everyone who knew him considered him at the very least 'quirky'. But Victoria knew better. Chance was smarter than any little kid she had ever met, and possibly the happiest. He had his quirks, but so does every other child.

"No, you don't like it when people talk about him." Owen replied. "I remember when your ex-girlfriend came in."

This set Mike off. "Shut up or I will throw you out!"

"Fine. Be that way. I'm going over here to look at the new manga." Owen said as he got up from the chair.

After about 30 more minutes, the store was full of gamers of all ages ready to participate in the tournament. Mike had calmed down and apologized, and everyone was getting ready for the tournament, when Chance reappeared at the door.

"Hi everyone!" He said as he walked inside.

Mike looked over his shoulder. "What the? Did you get away from Jon too?"

"No, his parents want me to watch him for the day. It seems his usual babysitter had things to do today." Jon said as he stepped in right behind Chance.

"Make sure to remind him to stay out of the way." Mike said as he closed the register.

"He knows." He then turned to Chance. "Now Chance, you just stay out the way of the players, ok? You can go play video games in the back if you want."

"Naw, something special will happen today, and I don't want to miss it." Chance replied.

Mike just rolled his eyes, and Owen looked amused. "Well, then we won't want to miss it either." he said.

Richie looked at the boy with interest, and then turned to Victoria. "Um…Victoria, does Chance have psychic powers?"

Victoria turned to look at him. She then turned to look at Chance. "I don't know. I guess he might. Anyway, I know why Mike doesn't like him."

This really got Richie's interest. "Why? How did you find out?"

"Owen told me the last time I brought Chance here. It's because Chance predicted Mike's girlfriend breaking up with him. One day she walked in, and he just looked at her. He frowned and called her unfaithful. Then everything went downhill. It caused her to admit she was cheating, and that it was over between them."

Richie turned to look at Chance, who was in turn looking at them, like he was expecting something to happen. He then turned back to Victoria. "Ok, now he gives me the creeps."

"Richie, how can you say that about him?" She turned away from him only to see Chance looking directly at them, only to turn away moments later.

"Ok, so he has his creepy moments. He's still a good kid. If I ever have children, I hope one turns out like him."

At the mention of children, both blushed and looked away from each other. Meanwhile, Jon stood in the middle of the back area. "Ok everyone, let's get this game started!"

"Ok, Stitch, so where are we going again?" Sora (Lilo) asked as the pair walked thru the forest.

"It's a party to celebrate a special event for another pair of experiments." Stitch replied.

"Oh, I figured Clip would have told me sooner if she was…"

"No, Lilo, not them. And I'm sure she would have told you before me if that happened." Stitch replied as he continued to lead her thru the forest. After a moment, the pair came on a clearing filled with gathered experiments. At the clearing's end were several targets of various sizes and shapes.

"Ok, I'm confused, what's going on here?" Sora asked as she looked over the group. At least 50 experiments were already here, and more were gathering.

"Didn't you tell her Stitch, today was my babies' special day?" a voice called out from behind them.

"Bonnie?" Sora said as she turned around. "I thought their birthday wasn't for another 3 months?"

"No, no not their birthday. Today is when the twins show everyone what they can do. Their powers have shown up!" Bonnie said, happily.

"That's wonderful, Bonnie. I'm sure their father is really proud."

Bonnie and Clyde were the first of the experiments to have children, Bonnie having given birth to twins about 2 years ago, a little after all the experiments had been found. Clyde had named them Jesse and James, after another famous outlaw. Being the first baby experiments ever, they were dotted on not just by their mother and father, but also Jumba and many of the other experiments (who would literally fight to see who got to look after the tykes when Bonnie and Clyde needed a break). Although Jumba had calculated that the twins would have similar powers, the twins had far different personalities.

James looked a lot like his father, except his coloring, which a blend of green and brown. He was outgoing and talkative, and never stopped getting into trouble. His sister, Jesse, on the other hand, favored her mother in almost ever respect, save that one of her hands seemed almost metallic. She was shy and quiet, unless she wanted something. Then she would usually have her daddy get it for her, but was not above manipulating another one of the adult experiments that would often visit.

At the moment the twins were with their father, who was giving them a last minute pep talk. Clyde was beaming with pride at his twins' accomplishment, much like he did the day they were born.

"Alright kids, let's show everyone what you two can do." Clyde said.

"But Daddy, there's so many people. I'm scared." Jesse said as she looked over the crowd. There was well over 30 experiments that had come to see them, and the usually shy Jesse was overwhelmed.

"I'm not scared Daddy, I can do anything!" James said with his usual confidence.

"Yeah, cept stop wetting the bed." Jesse replied, now irked at her brother.

"I do not!" James replied, getting in his sister's face.

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

This probably would have continued on had their father not stepped in. "That's enough, don't make me get Mommy."

"Ok, Daddy." The two replied in unison. They then shot each other mean glances when their father turned his back.

A few minutes later everyone had gathered in a circle around the clearing while Bonnie and Clyde lead the twins to the center, in front of the targets.

"Ok kids; show everyone what you can do." Clyde said as he patted them on the back.

The two then backed away as the children faced the targets. James' arm cannon began to charge with a faint glow, while Jesse's hand reformed itself to look like a green blaster.

"I bet I hit more than you." James said as he took his first shot. The blast itself wasn't that powerful, as it merely scorched the target.

Jesse scowled at her brother before turning to take a shot of her own. It hit in just about the same place, but actually broke off a piece of the target. "Neh neh. I broke the target."

"Only cause I hit it there first. Copycat." James replied as he took another shot. It hit one of the standing targets, a soda bottle, and knocked it backwards. "Neh neh."

"Oh yeah." Jesse took another shot and missed completely.

"Hah, you missed!" her brother mocked.

Jesse turned around and pointed her arm at her brother. "Oh, yeah. I bet I won't miss you!" She fired and hit James in the arm. James let out a cry of pain, he wasn't that hurt, but it really stung. He then shot back at her and hit her in the stomach. Pretty soon what had started as a display of the twins abilities turned into a demonstration of how neither of them could get along very well. Bonnie and Clyde rushed in to pull their children apart before they really hurt themselves (or the bystanders).

"Stop that this instant young man!" Bonnie said as she tried to hold down James' arm.

"She started it!" he replied as he tried to wiggle free.

"Daddy, he was being mean!" Jesse cried out, trying to convince her father to let her go.

"You were both being mean." Clyde replied as he held his daughter's hand back.

The crowd meanwhile couldn't help but snicker. They were a chip of the old block alright, just like their mom and dad.

Meanwhile Stitch and Sora looked over at the scene with mild amusement. Stitch turned to her. "Yep, those two are gonna turn out alright."

"Really? How can you tell?" Sora asked, puzzled at how this outburst could be 'alright'.

"Cause Bonnie and Clyde really care about how they turn out. You see how fast they stepped in to stop them from fighting? I was worried that they would just let them have at each other. I mean, they usually aren't the most responsible experiments." Stitch replied.

"I guess you're right. Jesse and James did change Bonnie and Clyde in a lot of ways. They stopped stealing and found a use for their talents in the real world."

"Yeah, I guess kids change things." Stitch said as he laid back on the grass.

Sora meanwhile turned back towards all the chaos. Bonnie and Clyde had just gotten the twins to calm down and were making them apologize. She sighed for a moment, then turned back to her boyfriend. "Stitch."

"Yeah Lilo, what's up?" he asked as he looked thru the tree line to the bright Hawaiian sky.

"What do you think our children will be like?"

This quickly got his full attention. "What…what do you mean, Lilo?"

She smiled and giggled at his reaction. "You sound surprised. I mean we can't have kids now, like most of the experiments, but I will want them someday. I want to start an ohana of my own."

Stitch sat back up and turned to face her. "I don't know Lilo. I mean, ya, we will have kids someday, but why are you thinking about it now?"

Sora merely had to point to the two experiments chastising their kids to remind him.

"Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense." Stitch replied as he looked down at the pair.

"So, what do you think they will be like?"

"I don't know. I guess they might have one or more of our powers, and I hope they will be able to self-morph so they can lead normal human and experiment lives."

Sora shook her head. "No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, what do you think their personalities will be?"

Stitch looked absolutely dumbfounded. "I have no idea Lilo. I mean, wouldn't they have to be a little older before we would know that?"

Sora just smiled and turned her gaze to the sky. "We can always imagine what they will be like. I mean sure we might be completely wrong, but they say the apple never falls far from the tree."

This made Stitch think for a moment. Then he put his paw up to his head. "Then we are in big trouble."

This made her giggle again. "You think they will be just like us, huh? Always in trouble and worrying their family sick?"

A moment passed before Stitch answered. "No, I don't think so. With us it was different, with experiment hunting and all. I hope our kids will have a much quieter life."

"Yeah, me too. I want them to be safe and not have to worry about them. But if they are anything like us, they will look for trouble. And you know it."

Stitch just shook his head. "Yeah, we're going to be in for it when we try to start a family."

"But that doesn't mean we can't look forward to it." Sora said as she looked back down at the clearing. By this time Bonnie and Clyde had gotten their children to apologize to one another and were directing them to on which target to shoot, so one wouldn't get credit for the other's shot.

Stitch smiled as he turned back to watch Jesse and James show off. "No, it certainly doesn't."

Myrtle Evans was doing something she swore she would never do: she was going into a game store. She personally thought that these games were played by losers who lived with their mothers, but she had been thinking. She thought back on how bad she had treated Richie. They used to get along great when they were little, but she had always had to stick up for him. And it wasn't his fault he fell for Victoria: she could personally attest to the fact that love was blind.

But it didn't change the fact that Lilo was dangerous, more dangerous than anyone knew. She also wasn't sure Richie knew the real truth; in fact she was pretty sure he didn't. Richie had more common sense than to hang around alien creatures that could possibly hurt him. The incident in the cafeteria was probably no more than Richie's hormones making him stick up for Victoria's 'friend', although she finally had to admit she had been a little harsh on him since he moved back.

So that was had brought her here. These card games were obviously important, and she figured she would give him a few words of encouragement. That way she could show that he was still her brother, and no matter how mean she seemed, she really wanted the best for him. And Victoria, as much she hated to admit it, was also right about one thing: she'd been using Richie as an outlet for her hatred of Lilo. Well no more, from now on her anger would be directed at Lilo and Lilo only.

As she entered the store, she saw several people gathered around one table. It looked like the game was already almost over. _Oh well, I can always check and see if Richie made it to the finals, this game seems to be his life._ The only person to even acknowledge her presence was a small boy sitting in the back of the room. He turned to look at her and immediately frowned. His gazed followed her as she walked to the gathering of people.

_What a creepy little kid. What's his problem?_

When Myrtle got closer, she saw that Richie had indeed made it into the finals. She couldn't help but snicker when she saw his opponent. _I guess this is to decide who's going to wear the pants in this relationship._

At first Richie hadn't been able to believe his luck. He had made it to the final round. He quickly changed his tune, however, when he found out Victoria had made it too, and that she would be his final opponent. His nerves were frayed when the pair sat across from each other. Should he throw the match, or would that make him look like a coward? If he won, would that upset her? He had even been too nervous to shake her hand at the beginning of duel. Jon had waved it when he realized that Richie was already a nervous wreck. And then there was Chance. Ever since the duel started, every time he looked up, he would be staring at them. And there was something with his eyes; he could have sworn they were blue when he got there, but now they seemed green. But he didn't have the nerve to ask Victoria about it, he had already figured out the kid was a hot button with her. Instead he spent all his focus on the duel, trying his best to keep his calm, and it was working well enough; they were tied one and one. But it had come down to this: Victoria had 1600 life points left. Problem was he had only 1000, and he had nothing on the board but two face downs due to a card that had wiped his half clean of monsters. If she attacked now, she would win. Except for the fact he had a card that if he used it, it would turn her attack back on her, and he'd win. He looked at Victoria's face; she was extremely excited because she thought she was going to win. She had tried her hardest to win, if that little kid was better than this, than the rumors had to be true, and Greg and Nathan had been made a laughing stock by a second grader. She declared her attack. It was now or never.

And wouldn't you know it, he panicked. By the time he knew what had happened, Victoria had been declared the winner.

"Better luck next time Richie. That was fun." Victoria said as she started picking up her cards. In the process, she accidentally knocked over his only two face downs, Transcendent Wings and Flute of Summoning Kuriboh. "Wow Richie, I you only had had another one in your deck, you would have won."

"Yeah, I guess bad luck on my part." Richie said as he scratched his head. This however revealed his hand to Greg and Nathan, who were right behind him.

"Wait a second; you did have Winged Kuriboh, right in your hand. Why the heck didn't you play it?" Greg said, astonished.

"I guess I froze up." Richie meekly replied.

"More like you let her win." Nathan said, shaking his head. "Let your heart come before your head. Sad."

Victoria looked at Richie in his eyes. "Did you really let me win?"

Richie quickly turned his head down and blushed. "I…I…you looked really happy that you were going to win."

Myrtle picked this moment to finish making her way to the table. "So you lost huh Richie. Oh well, always another day I guess."

Richie quickly spun around. He had never expected in a million years his sister would ever set foot in a game store, much less watch him play.

"He didn't lose, he let her win." Greg said as he started to pack up his things. "Whooped."

"What? You let her win? Why Richie?" Myrtle said astonished.

"Well, she…" Richie began to reply.

Myrtle quickly interrupted him. "Please tell me you're not going to let her walk all over you. Why don't you show a little backbone?"

Victoria had had enough of Myrtle's bullying, and decided to put an end to it once and for all. In a way Richie never expected. She reached across the table and turned Richie to face her, then planted her lips right on his.

She held him there for a full five seconds before letting him go. The room immediately burst in to a combination of gasps and whistles as Richie fell back into his chair with a blissful look on his face. Victoria then turned her gaze up to Myrtle. "There, I guess you won't be telling your brother what to do anymore. Girlfriends outrank bossy sisters."

Myrtle was absolutely livid. It wasn't the fact that Victoria had kissed her brother, it was the fact she had the nerve to say that to her face right afterwards. "Why you little BITCH!"

"MYRTLE LISA EVANS!"

Everyone turned to the door to the see the source of the voice. There stood a tall red-headed man in a Marine uniform. Myrtle looked like a deer in headlights. "Daddy?"

Richie immediately snapped out of his daze and shot around. "Dad?"

End Chapter 10

Next Chapter

Unforgotten Memories


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I got this one finished really quickly, so I'm posting it. This chapter will clear up some things surrounding a couple of the less understood characters. And something else will happen in this chapter, something horrible.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 11

Unforgotten Memories

Mike's Hobbies was in a state of chaos. First Victoria reaches over and kisses Richie right out of the blue, causing the room to break out in whistles and cheers from Owen and several others, followed by Victoria taunting Richie's twin sister Myrtle about who was in control, to Myrtle screaming curses at the top of her lungs. And now this: their father had shown up, and he didn't look too happy. He walked right up to Myrtle and grabbed her by the arm. "I didn't believe your mother when she called about your behavior, but now I see I was mistaken."

"But Daddy she…"

"No buts. You are in big trouble young lady. You have no right to treat you brother that way."

"But you just saw what she did! And I was just trying to keep him safe." Myrtle replied.

"That's my concern, not yours Myrtle. I'll worry about what Richie and his girlfriend do in public places." Her father replied.

Richie gulped. He knew his father was strict and had expressedly stated that he wasn't allowed to start dating until he turned sixteen. As soon as Dad was finished with Myrtle, he was next.

Meanwhile Myrtle had continued to argue her case, saying that Richie had been hanging around someone she knew to be dangerous. He just ignored her; saying that she was only digging herself a deeper hole and that he wouldn't hear anymore of her lies.

At being called a liar, Myrtle jerked her hand free of her father's grasp. "Nobody believes me! My friends, my family, nobody!" She ran away from her father and out the door.

"Myrtle Evans! You come back here this instant! Don't you walk away from me young lady!" her dad called out. But she had already run off. He sighed heavily. "Why is it I can command an entire division of troops, but I can't even control my own preteen daughter? She's her mother made over, I swear."

He turned around to see that his son had packed up his things and had gotten up. He then looked over at Victoria. "I know you were just trying to put my daughter in her place, but I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do that again in public."

Victoria just sat in silence, staring at him. Along with the rest of the room. Meanwhile, Richie looked up at his father. "Am I in trouble?"

"Sigh, no Richie, you're not in trouble, but we need to talk anyway. Let's get going and see if we can find where your sister ran off to."

"Ok Dad." Richie replied as he slung his bag on his shoulder.

As the two walked out of the store, Richie's father, Don, was scanning the horizon for any sign of his daughter. Not seeing any sign of her, he turned to look at his son. "Well Richie, do you have any idea of where you sister might have run off to?"

"No sir, I don't." Richie replied.

Don put his hand on his son's shoulder. "I guess she'll come home when she's ready. Her mother was like that when she was her age. Always excitable."

"Was Mom bossy too?" Richie asked.

"No." He then scowled his face a little. "Your aunt was."

Richie couldn't help but laugh a little. He knew that his dad didn't like his sister-in-law, never had.

Don looked down and smiled. "It looks like someone's social life took off when they moved here. I hear you've made three friends already, and it looks like you might have found a girlfriend too. You really have grown on me."

"But I thought I wasn't supposed to start dating until I was sixteen. I thought you would be mad."

His father just laughed. "That's just an old man who isn't ready to see his boy grow up. I remember when you and your sister weren't knee high, and you used to run around in the back yard all day."

"Yeah, me and Myrtle used to get along a lot better. I keep trying to figure out what happened to her, and why she's so mean. And most of it is directed at this one girl in particular."

"Lilo Peliaki. Your mother told me about it. I remember the Peliakis from when I served over here 15 years ago, and I think I might have an answer for you. Quite frankly, if the girl looks anything like her mother, then Myrtle probably considers her a threat."

"You mean Myrtle's jealous? But then why does she want to hurt her?"

"That your mother and I don't know. Up until recently, Myrtle had no more than a rivalry with the girl, but lately your mother says it's gotten worse and worse. Your mother has her own theories, but I for one want Myrtle taken to a psychiatrist. There's something else wrong and we need a professional's help to get to the bottom of it."

"Myrtle blames Lilo for her breakup with Jason Walbridge." Richie stated, hoping to give his father an answer.

"We know. You're not the only one who went thru your sister's diary for answers. But even thought that explains why Myrtle started going out of her way to insult Lilo, it doesn't explain her now obsession with her. That started awhile after that, a few weeks after the beginning of school."

"You mean after Myrtle was in that accident?"

"Exactly. But what I can't figure is why, and your sister even keeps her reasons out of her diary. And now your mother can't even find where she keeps it."

Richie felt concern. Could something really be wrong with his sister? Richie knew what Myrtle wanted reveal about Lilo, but why had she been searching for it for so long? What caused her to want Lilo hurt, or worse?

Only Myrtle knew that answer, and no one would believe her. Her friends didn't remember what she did, and she was only now beginning to piece the puzzle of her memory back together. It had started as dreams: Lilo would torture them with shock collars, and then she turned into a monster. It was so frightening that she couldn't even bring herself to write about it in her diary.

These dreams would haunt her night after night, and it was driving her insane. She started to blame Lilo for her troubles, after all the dreams were about her. She intensified her search for blackmail material. When she discovered the truth about Lilo, she first thought nothing of its possible connection, but that night the dreams came back, more vivid than ever. This time the monster Lilo became was clearer. She tired to dismiss it and fight it off, so much so she forgot all about Richie and Victoria's budding romance, as well as everything else. But she couldn't.

And last night it came to her when she looked at one of the scars she had from her supposed fall: it was a claw mark! The dreams weren't dreams, they were memories! Memories someone had tried to make her forget. The other girls couldn't remember, and now they were avoiding her, thinking she was crazy. Certainly her brother didn't know the truth, heck even Victoria probably didn't know!

She had gone to the card shop to make up with her brother, after all, to protect him he needed to trust her again, like he had used to, before what happened with Lilo made her into a total jerk. Something had to be done, someone had to be told. But who would believe her? Lilo never seemed evil, even in her memory; she had said that Lilo didn't have it in her. But she did, and she was still roaming free.

As Myrtle walked along the beach with tears in her eyes, a voice broke her thoughts. "What happened to you?"

Myrtle turned immediately to see Jason Walbridge leaning on a post. "What, no name calling? No harpy, or witch, or devil? I don't have time for you to sit and insult me."

This knocked Jason off his guard. Myrtle was extremely upset. "Whoa, no name calling, I was just asking what was wrong."

"Why do you care? You hate me. Everyone hates me." Myrtle had finally given in to depression. A monster was on the loose, and if her own family wouldn't believe her, who would?

"I care because my mom always said you need to. Unchecked depression leads to bad things." Jason replied as he straightened up.

"Fine, you want to know what happened: Richie let Victoria win at the tournament today. Then, when I got on to him about it, you know what she did?"

Jason was tempted to say that Victoria stuck up for Richie, but he didn't want to make the situation worse. And Myrtle looking like this, it made his heart hurt. Even though he was trying to force it not to.

"She pulled him across the table and didn't just kiss him; it looked like she was trying to make out with him!"

Jason couldn't believe it, but he looked at Myrtle's facial expression, and if she was lying, she'd gotten a lot better overnight. "You're kidding? And that's what caused this?"

"No. When she finally let go of Richie, she taunted me. Said that 'girlfriends outrank bossy sisters'. I exploded at her. I guess I had no right to, since I tried to control Richie too, but something inside me just went off. I called her something I shouldn't have, and…"

"And what?" Jason asked. This was getting interesting, and if he'd been there, he'd probably gone off as well. That was a direct attempt to control Richie, at least how Myrtle had described it.

"And my father was right behind me."

Jason winced. "Well that couldn't have gone off any worse. But why are you here now? I heard your dad was pretty strict."

"I tried to explain everything to him, but he just yelled at me. I even tried to tell him why I wanted him away from Victoria in the first place, but he just called me a liar. And then I ran away."

Myrtle tried to fight back tears, she didn't want to look weak in front of Jason, didn't want to give him the pleasure of watching her suffer. She tried to walk away when she felt Jason's hand on her shoulder.

"What did you try to tell him?"

Myrtle jerked his hand off her. "Why do you care? You'll just think I'm crazy too!"

Jason backed off. Myrtle wasn't playing; she wasn't trying to lead him on. She was hurt, and there was more to it than she was in trouble with her parents.

She looked up at him. "How much do you know about Lilo? Because no matter how much you know, you don't know anything. And until a little while ago, I didn't remember."

Jason looked at her wide-eyed. _This has to do with Lilo? What does she mean, 'until a little while ago, I didn't remember?'_ Then he remembered the discussions he'd been having with Knuckles, and how he'd just lip up. Whatever Lilo's secret was, if it had ex-CIA that deeply involved, something was wrong beyond a simple mistake or flaw. And Myrtle might have his answer. But after all the lies, could he trust her now?

"What is Lilo's secret? It seems everyone knows something about it except me, and Alex is bent on keeping me in the dark. What needs to stay a secret so bad that his CIA uncle is involved?"

This surprised Myrtle, that Jason was that suspicious of it all. _That explains why that vice-principal had a three hour talk with Mom. It was damage control, I know too much. He wanted to make sure nobody ever believes me. But if he was with the government, why hasn't he locked Lilo up? She's dangerous! Isn't she?_

"Myrtle, are you okay?" Jason said as he tried to figure out what was going on in her mind. She looked deeply disturbed by what he had said. But he had only asked a question, what had caused her to freak out further? _I told her about Knuckles uncle. Man, he's going to kill me if he finds out, but I think I might have just added something to Myrtle's understanding this, whatever this is. What is going on?_

"Then why hasn't he locked her away? Are the other girls right, am I really imagining things?"

Jason tried to put his hand on her shoulder to clam her down, but she stiffed up before he even got there.

"NO! I know what I saw, and she looked just like she in my dream, no my memory! Sure her fur was darker, but someone tried to make me forget, and I will not rest until I find out why!"

Jason started to back away. _Okay, maybe she is crazy. Fur? Dreams? Memory erasure? What the…_

A loud boom brought both of them out of their thoughts. Both immediately looked over head to see something land in the jungle beyond. "What was that?" Jason said astonished. "Please tell me you saw that."

"Yea, what the heck was it?" Myrtle replied, just as shocked.

"I don't know, but I say we find out." Jason said as he started making his way towards the jungle.

"Are you crazy? You have no idea what that could be!" Myrtle replied.

"It's probably a meteorite or something. Come on, if we're the one's to find it, maybe we'll get our names in the paper or something." Jason said as he started to part the underbrush.

Myrtle just stood there for a minute. Just before Jason was out of sight, she called out to him. "Wait for me! I must be out of my mind, but I can't just you get yourself hurt." _Not when you're the only person who will still listen to me._

The pair didn't have to go far in the jungle to find what had landed. The large object could be mistaken for nothing other than a spacecraft. It was just slightly larger than Gantu's spaceship, and was painted a dull brown. It had what looked to be a mechanism for holding and positioning something that was possibly larger than it was, but there was nothing connected to it at the moment.

"Whoa, a spaceship!" Jason exclaimed.

Myrtle backed away in fear. "Jason, this isn't a meteorite, this is dangerous."

"Since when has Myrtle Evans been afraid of anything?" Jason replied.

Myrtle furrowed her brow. "How do you know that whatever's on that ship isn't dangerous?"

"I didn't say I was going to go anywhere near the thing. I'm not stupid. But let's wait to see if anything comes out."

"I'm outta here, Jason, and if you have any sense, you'd make tracks too." Myrtle replied.

"Just five minutes ok? If nothing comes out, we'll go alert the authorities."

"Fine, but why do you want me to stay?"

"Well, no one's going to believe me if it's just me saying that aliens landed. We used to laugh at Lilo when she'd go screaming about it, remember?"

"Are you saying that she was right?" Myrtle asked. If he said yes, then he might actually believe her.

"Well, I know that's not her aunt. That's a guy. A guy what, I have no idea. And I don't think I wanna know." Jason replied.

Myrtle couldn't help but giggle a little. "What about her uncle?"

"You mean Chris's guardian? Nope, he's a guy too. And again, I'm not sure on the species."

"You aren't an idiot either. How come no one else sees what we do?" Myrtle asked.

"My guess is either they're idiots, or they just don't want too. I mean, most people deny the existence of anything they aren't forced to believe. Not to mention that there are a lot of ugly people, so I guess that's what everyone thinks those two are." He then turned to look at Myrtle. "Was that the secret you had over Lilo?"

"It used to be, but then I found out something else. Something else I'm not so sure about anymore." Myrtle replied as their eyes met unthreateningly for the first time in almost a year.

"Something else? Well, I guess it's probably something more believable. Stuff like that makes horrible blackmail, cause nobody believes you."

Whither or not either knew it, they were starting to win each other all over again. Neither was calling the other names, Jason was acting like his old sharp-witted self, and Myrtle was able to relax for the first time in a long while. She didn't feel angry or confrontational; she felt a calm happiness, just like when they'd first met.

Too bad the moment wouldn't last. The ship's computer had detected them, and a certain someone was watching both with malicious interest.

"That's funny; I thought those two had broken up. One of the few pleasurable memories my lesser ever provided me with." The onlooker stood there for a moment in silence, before a devious smirk appeared on her face. "Yes, I think this will make it all the more fun. I won't just kill Myrtle; I'll kill her boyfriend too. Right in front of her. Then I'll deal with my lesser and her boyfriend, as well as the rest of this planet."

Meanwhile Myrtle and Jason had realized that five minutes had long since gone by. "Wow, I guess we must have lost track of time. Did you hear anything coming from the ship?" Jason asked.

"No. If there's anyone in there, they aren't going to come out for a while." Myrtle replied.

"Guess we'd better get the cops. This thing better not take off before we get back." Jason said as he started to turn around.

"I don't think it's going anywhere." A voice said from behind them.

Both quickly shot around to see someone standing there. "Lilo? What are you doing here?" Jason asked. "And what's with all the black stripes? Halloween was three months ago."

Meanwhile Myrtle immediately starting taking steps back. Fear had begun to set in. An irrational, deep rooted fear. Then, all her memories came flooding back. The savage beating she and her friends received as they begged for their lives. She screamed, causing Jason to turn around.

"Myrtle what the heck are you screaming about, you wanna draw the aliens' attention?"

"I think it's too late for that."

Jason spun around again as Myrtle's screaming got even louder. "What are you talking…" It was then Jason's eyes fell on the wings on 'Lilo's' back. "Oh my..."

A small spark of energy flew from Lilith's hand and hit Jason square on, knocking him to the ground and unconscious.

"JASON!" Myrtle cried as she watched him hit the ground.

"I'd worry about yourself. You and I have unfinished business." Lilith said as she approached Myrtle.

"Lilo you monster! What did he do to you?" Myrtle cried out. For all anyone knew, Jason was dead. "He actually stuck up for you!"

Lilith lunged forward and grabbed Myrtle by her neck. "Don't…ever…call me by that weakling's name."

"You're…not…her?" Myrtle managed to sputter out as Lilith choked her. As she began to lose consciousness, she heard:

"I am her better."

Lilith looked down at her victims. "Now to stash these two while I go look for what I need for the first part of my plan." She grabbed the unconscious Jason and Myrtle and drug both of them back to her ship. She had converted the largest room in the ship into a large open-area prison, complete with several sets of restraints. She shackled both Jason and Myrtle to the wall on opposite sides of the room and stepped back to admire her handy work. "It's a good thing I put in extras, cause I have a feeling a lot more people are going to be joining us." She then let out a laugh as she stepped outside the door. "Have a good rest, lovebirds. Tonight is your joint execution."

Victoria had decided after the game that she would try and find Lilo, but she wasn't home. She then decided that she'd rather head to her favorite spot on the beach than head home, so she could figure out what to do next with Richie. She had just kissed him out of the blue, with no explanation or forewarning. To tell the truth, she didn't even know why she did it. She liked Richie, that was for sure, but did she kiss him just to spite Myrtle? And now his dad probably didn't like her. He probably wanted to talk to Richie to tell him to stay away from her. _God, I wish Lilo were here, she'd know what to do._

"Hey Victoria, what are you thinking about?"

Victoria turned around to see who had just addressed her. "Lilo! I was wondering where you were. What's with the stripes, did you lose a bet or something?"

"I asked you what you were thinking about." Lilo replied.

Victoria looked down and sighed. "Richie. I really screwed things up today."

"Oh, how so?" she asked, never taking her eyes off Victoria.

"I kissed him to piss off Myrtle, and their dad saw me do it. Now I think he's going to try and keep him away from me."

"Oh, that's too bad. But cheer up, I'm sure your day could have been worse."

Victoria looked up to face her friend. "Thanks Lilo, but I don't know how."

There eyes met, and suddenly Victoria's face went blank.

"Simple." Lilith said with a smirk. "It just did."

Mike closed the register as he held his head. Today had been one headache after another. First there was the commotion at the tournament, and then the clean up after Nathan and Greg got in a fight when Chance pointed out that Nathan had marked his cards. Then the fight to kick them both out of the store so they wouldn't do any more damage.

"Chance, every time that boy spends anytime here, the shop turns into a scene from a soap opera. I really wish I knew what was with that kid." Mike then proceeded to lock the display cases. "Heck, maybe the kid is psychic. Where is he anyway?" Mike started to look to see where Chance had gotten too, when he heard Owen call out for Mike.

"Mike! Find Jon, something's wrong with Chance!"

"What? What's wrong with him?" Mike said as he quickly ran back to see what was wrong. He came in to find Chance curled up, shaking like he was freezing to death. "Oh my God, what's going on?"

"I don't know, find Jon. Maybe he knows what is happening!" Owen yelled back as he tried everything to calm the child down.

"What the hell are you talking about, I'm calling 911. The kid's having a seizure!" Mike replied.

"No he's not, he's not jerking around and stuff. It's like something's scaring him to death." Owen shot back.

"What is all the racket back here for?" Jon said as he walked into the back room. His eyes then fell on Chance's shivering form. "Mike, call his parents!"

End Chapter 11

Next Chapter

The Nightmare Begins Anew


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Well, here we go. Back into the nightmare of Lilith, and I can promise you, she's more evil than ever. So evil that I can't help but hate her, and I'm writing this! I have to warn you though, this may start getting wierd, but if you were paying attention all thru out the fic, nothing should come as a surprise. Lilith's going to hurt a lot of people in a lot of different ways before it's all over, so enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 12

The Nightmare Begins Anew

Lilo and Stitch had just gotten back from the party, which had gone on without any further fights between the guests of honor, when Jumba called out from the ship. "626, could you be helping me for a moment?"

"Sure Jumba, but where's Siron?" Stitch asked as he and Lilo turned to face the ship.

"Sent 628 to gather data on little experiments. Was too busy to go myself." He replied.

"Oh, yeah I remember seeing him there; he was way in the back, away from everyone else." Lilo said as she changed back into human form. "You could barely see him."

"628 has telescopic vision, could see into space if he wished. I am sure he saw everything he needed to." Jumba said as he continued to fiddle with a small device in his hands. "Or are you being more worried about his socialization?"

"Well, yeah, that kinda crossed my mind."

"628 is a scientist at heart, like myself, and is more likely to prefer focusing on work. Other experiments would have been distraction."

"That makes sense." Stitch replied as he made his way up the ramp. "What are you going to do for the rest of the day, Lilo?"

"I don't know; where is everyone else?"

"Pleakly has gone shopping." Jumba then rolled his eyes. "Again."

"And Nani and David?"

"At fancy dinner in honor of impending marriage. Hope they are enjoying it, last calm dinner they will ever have."

"You speaking from experience, Jumba?" Stitch asked as he looked over the device in Jumba's hand. "And what's this?"

"Is a special device for analyzing 628. Am hoping it will help isolate combat programming. And yes, am speaking from experience."

Lilo sighed. "Well, I guess I'll go inside and watch TV for a while. Call me if you need anymore help, ok?"

"We will Lilo." Stitch as the hatch shut.

Lilo was about to go inside when she heard a voice from behind her. "Hey Lilo, what's up?"

"Hey Victoria, how did the tournament go?" Lilo said as she turned around.

"It went great. Hey, you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure, I haven't got anything better to do. Let me just let Jumba and Stitch know where I'm going." Then Lilo heard a loud bang from inside the ship. "On second thought, I doubt they'd hear me. Let's go."

The girls had walked for several minutes along one of the many trails that lead thru the forest, and Lilo was starting to worry about Victoria. She had been really quiet this whole time, and every time Lilo would ask her about something, she'd just give a short response. Finally, Lilo had enough. "Victoria, what's wrong with you, you've been quiet this whole time! Did things really go that bad with Richie?"

"No. Everything went fine." Victoria responded. "We're almost there."

"Almost where? Are we going any place in particular?" Lilo asked, giving her a friend a concerned look. _What's with her? If things really went ok with Richie, why isn't she excited? Something's wrong, but what?_

"It's a place I discovered earlier today. It's just ahead."

"Ok." Then Lilo stopped in her tracks. _Wait a minute. Victoria was at the tournament all day! _

"Hello, weakling. Long time no see." a soft voice said from behind her.

Every muscle in Lilo's body went rigid. _That voice! It can't be._ Lilo then felt something connect to the back of her head, and the force of the blow knocked her to the ground. She looked up to see Victoria with a metal pipe in her hands. "No, it can't be."

"Well it is." Lilith said as she walked in front of Victoria. "How have you been weakling? Glad to see me?"

"You, you can't be here! You're supposed to me, and I'm not you, and how are you here?" Lilo rambled out in a state of shock.

"My, my, you are excited to see me! And here I was worried that you'd hate me "Lilith said in a playful voice "I guess you actually liked being me."

This caused Lilo to snap to her senses. Never mind the fact that she was staring face to face with herself, that was the worst day of her life! "I hated being you. Those memories have scarred me ever since!"

"Oh, I'm hurt. And here I thought we could be like twin sisters." Lilith said in a false tone.

"I'll never be anything to you, and I don't how you got here, but you aren't staying long!" Lilo replied as she shot up off the ground and transformed into Sora. She let a blast fly from her hands, but Lilith quickly dodged. Victoria then came at her with the tube again, but Sora managed to grab it and pry it from her hands. Sora then spun around just in time to see Lilith let loose a blast from her hands, aimed not at her, but at Victoria! Sora quickly pushed her out of the way, only to be struck herself. The blast sent her flying into a tree and sprawling onto the ground.

"Figures. Still care more about others than yourself. When are you going to learn?" Lilith said as she readied another blast, "The only way to get ahead is to think of yourself!"

Lilith then let loose another blast toward Victoria, and she just stood there, like she wanted to be hit. Sora leapt in front of her and put up her wings, and the blast bounced of harmlessly. "Hah, now try and hit Victoria!" she said in triumph.

"Figured you do that." Lilith said arrogantly. "Now slave!"

Before Sora could react, she felt something jab in her back. She turned around to see Victoria with a shot in her hand. "No." she said weakly as the sedative took affect. Within seconds her body had given in completely, and she was nearly unconscious. As her vision dimmed, she saw the form of her doppelganger over her.

"You're right. You are nothing to me. And soon, you'll and everyone you care about will be nothing completely."

A silent observer had been watching the proceedings with fear. Richie and his dad had split up to try and find Myrtle, when he came across Victoria. He tried to call out to her, but she wouldn't respond. It was at that moment he figured out something was wrong, so he decided to follow her. He followed her and Lilo after they left her house, and into the woods, making sure to stay far enough behind as to no be noticed. He too figured something was up when Victoria said she'd discovered something, because he'd been with her all day save the last two hours. Then he saw someone sneak up behind them. He tried to call out, but his voice got stuck in his throat when he realized that the other person was Lilo too! Or at least it looked exactly like her, except for those weird body tattoos.

Then something completely unexpected happened. Victoria hit Lilo in the back of the head with a metal tube! Richie stood in shock as Lilo hit the ground. Then he remembered that Lilo could take control of people, which meant that the other Lilo could too! She'd taken control of Victoria and used her to lure Lilo into a trap. Richie felt helpless as Lilo transformed and fought it out, the other Lilo attacking Victoria, with the real one trying to protect her. Just as Richie thought the original had a handle on the situation, Victoria took out a syringe and jabbed it into Lilo's unprotected back! Lilo then fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

Now Richie was by himself against an evil clone and his own girlfriend! _Oh man, what do I do, what do I do. I can't let them hurt Lilo, but I don't stand a chance against that thing. And I can't hurt Victoria, but if I expose myself, I don't think that clone will let her give me the same consideration._

Richie quickly scanned his surrounding when he noticed that the pipe had landed just a few inches from him. _I can use the pipe to hit that other Lilo. But then what about Victoria, she'd come after me, and I can't fend them both off. Come to think of it, I can't fend either one off._ He looked at the pipe, and then he looked at the clone, who was now taunting her fallen original. Then he hear her threat about what was going to happen. _Now I have to do something. If I don't, she'll kill everyone anyway, including Victoria! I have to fight her for her own good. Maybe if I knock that clone unconscious, Victoria will snap out of it._ Richie reached for the tube and took it in his hands. _I hope this works._

Richie leapt out of his hiding place and aimed for the back of Lilith's head, only to have her spin around and catch the tube. "I wondered when you'd come out of hiding." She said with a smirk. She then proceeded to throw Richie, tube and all, onto the ground. "Are you surprised? I do have super hearing you know." She said as she leaned closer. Her face was inches from the scared boys when she whispered in his ear. "I could hear your heavy breathing."

Lilith then yanked Richie of the ground and held him in the air. "So this is your boyfriend Victoria? I didn't think anything even remotely attractive could be related to Myrtle, but he actually looks kinda cute, in a cowardly sort of way."

"Victoria, do something, please!" Richie cried out, but to his dismay, she looked like she was actually enjoying watching him suffer.

"Don't waste your breath. My control over her is absolute. If I told her to right now, she'd kill you without a second thought." Lilith mocked. Then she proceeded to throw Richie back on the ground. He hit the earth with a hard thump. "Actually, I'm rather impressed. Your sister screamed the moment she saw me, and she wasn't able to even move as a blasted her boyfriend into unconsciousness. You seem to be a little braver."

She found out how brave when Richie kicked as hard as he could and hit her in the mouth. She yelped in surprise. Richie took this as his chance to try and get away, but was quickly restrained by Victoria.

"Oh no you don't." she said as she put her boyfriend in a headlock.

Meanwhile Lilith was pissed. He'd actually had the nerve to strike her. She quickly snatched the boy from Victoria and proceeded to throw him back to the ground. "So, you think you're going to be the little hero, don't you? Well not today. After I kill Jason in front of your sister, I'm going to kill you." Then she gave him a malicious grin. "No, in fact, I'll have Victoria do it. That ought to be fun."

"Victoria, help me." Richie said weakly. For a moment, Victoria faced soften, but it immediately turned back into a scowl.

"Forget it. I told you my power is absolute. Now I think it's time for you to take a little nap." Then Lilith stuck him. Although she was nowhere near Stitch's strength, the force of the blow knocked Richie out cold.

Lilith looked down at the now unconscious Richie. "Lovesick idiot. I have news for you; there are some things even that can't overcome."

"Thanks for your cooperation; I'll make sure Jumba gets back to you with the data as soon as possible." Siron said as he waved goodbye.

"Alright, don't be a stranger now!" Bonnie replied.

Siron had just said farewell to Bonnie and Clyde when something caught his attention. A group of people had gathered around outside one of the stores, standing around something. Siron decided to take a closer look, when his super-hearing picked up the woman's voice.

"Chance, sweetie, Mommy's here. What's the matter?"

This immediately got Siron's full attention. _Chance? That must be his mother, but what's wrong with him?_ Siron got as close as he could without being noticed and activated his enhanced vision, causing his eyes glow yellow. Upon closer inspection, Chance was in the arms of a taller man, who was also trying to comfort him.

"Come on Chance. I know my little survivor can handle anything." The man said. However, Chance continued to shiver uncontrollably. "My God Betty, what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know Walter; it's never been this bad before. We need to call an ambulance." The woman replied.

"That didn't work last time! It just scared him even more!" Walter yelled.

"Well what are we supposed to do? Our son is having a panic attack and we have no idea why!" Betty screamed back.

"And both of you screaming isn't helping either." Jon said as he leaned closer to Chance.

Siron was starting to become frightened himself. He'd never seen Chance in this condition: his eyes were shut tight and he was shaking uncontrollably. Upon closer inspection, his lips were moving slightly; he was trying to say something, but it was obvious no one could hear him for his parents' screaming. Then his eyes opened and looked in Siron's direction. He lips started to move a little more. Did Chance see him? Was he trying to tell him something?

Siron tuned in his super hearing in hopes of catching what Chance was trying to say. He had to struggle to filter out everyone else, but he finally heard something that sounded like Chance's voice:

"The monster came back… It's too powerful."

Siron became confused. _The monster? What is Chance talking about? Did he see something that scared him? No, a kid who can sit and calmly talk to a strange alien creature isn't scared of the monster in the closet._ Then he remembered what Chance had told him a few days before:

_The bad feeling never really went away after that, it just became weak for awhile. Sometimes I couldn't even feel it, but I can feel it now. I think it might be the same thing as before._

Siron stood in shock as he realized what had caused Chance to panic. "Lilith."

He then took off as fast as he could toward Jumba's ship. He knew that Jumba would never believe him, but he had to try. If the thing he described in his journals had come back, then everyone was in great danger.

The inside of Jumba's ship was once again filled with black smoke as another one of his attempts went up in flames. "Cough, 626. Get fire extinguisher!"

"On it Jumba!" Stitch replied as he snatched the fire extinguisher from the table and proceeded to douse the fire in suds.

Jumba coughed for a few more seconds before the smoke finally cleared. He looked over the now fried device, looking for what went wrong. "Do not understand, everything is being where it should. Why does it keep going boom?"

"Don't look at me, I have no idea how this thing even works." Stitch replied. Suddenly there was a large banging on the hull. "Hey, what's that?"

"Jumba! Open the hatch!"

Jumba immediately ran over to the door control. It was 628 outside, and Jumba had never heard him so on edge. He didn't even wait for the steps to drop fully, he just leapt inside.

"628, what is being the matter? Is something wrong with the little ones?"

Siron was panting heavily. "No, something worse has happened."

"What is it 628? What could be troubling you so?"

"My programming, how do I activate it?" Siron said as he tried to regain his composure.

This knocked Jumba for a loop. "628, why are you wanting to activate untested programming? You are knowing what might happen."

"I know what will happen if I don't. It's back."

Both Jumba and Stitch stood in shock. Siron couldn't possibly mean what they thought he did, could he? He didn't even know what Lilith looked like. But something had him scared, scared enough to want to try to activate his combat program.

At that moment Jumba's phone started to ring. All three of them turned to look at it. "626, answer the phone."

Stitch looked over at Jumba, with a mix of worry and fear. "You don't think it could be…"

"No, is probably Pleakly. Even if it was her, she would have no memory of us. She would most likely be a clone"

Stitch was about to pick up the phone, when it stopped ringing. Instead the light was flashing saying that someone had left a picture message. "Jumba, they left a message."

"Well, then put it on screen."

Stitch pressed the button to bring up the message.

"One message recorded..." the computer voice replied.

The screen lit up with the first image, and everyone's eyes went wide. There was Myrtle lying in a heap chained to the wall. Then the camera spun around to show Jason and Richie in the same positions. Then the camera fell on a glass chamber with someone inside unconscious.

"Lilo…" Stitch said as he stood, paralyzed with horror.

Then someone walked in front of the camera. Stitch became tense with fear and anger, and Jumba yelled and fell backwards.

"Hello Jumba. I guess you see your greatest creation is back. I've missed you and everyone, especially you, Stitch." Lilith said with her usual evil smirk. "Anyway, as you can see we've got quite a party here already, but we're still missing a few of our guests of honor. You wouldn't want to miss the big finale, would you bugee-boo?"

Stitch's fear and anger had reached a boiling point. How dare she call him that? "Why that little bitch! I don't know how she came back, but I'm going to make sure she goes away permanently!"

Meanwhile, Lilith finished her message. "Well, I guess I'll see you soon. I landed my craft right where Gantu's used to be. Better hurry up Stitch, or I might get bored. And you know what happens then." she said with malice.

The message ended and the screen cut off. Jumba had just pulled himself back to his feet, and Stitch was shaking in anger. Siron stood in shock, Lilith looked just like Lilo, save her eerie markings, but her personality was completely different. This creature was evil incarnate.

"What are we going to do?" Jumba asked as he rubbed his back.

"I'll tell you what we're going to, were going to go and destroy that monster once and for all!" Stitch yelled in a fury.

"And walk right into her trap? 626 you know her better than that. You could not be defeating her last time, how are you expecting to now?" Jumba replied.

Stitch gritted his teeth. "I…I don't know. But if we don't act fast, she's going to kill Lilo and my friends!"

"I know 626, I know. But what are we going to do?" Jumba replied as he sat down in his chair.

Siron spoke up. "You have me."

Both turned to look at him. Seeing that he had their attention, he continued. " I mean, this is what I was designed for, wasn't it?"

Stitch just looked at him. _Doesn't he know what might happen to him if he uses his programming? He might change forever. Why is he willing to risk that, he doesn't even know me and Lilo that well. Why is he willing to sacrifice himself like that?_

"628, you are knowing what might happen, and yet you wish to fight anyway? Why?" Jumba asked his creation.

"Because someone once told me that a time would come when something needed to be done that only I could do. That it's destiny."

"The little boy." Jumba replied, surprising both experiments.

"You know about Chance?" Siron said, surprised Jumba knew about the little boy.

"Indeed. Had someone watching you for me while you were out. Says you formed fast friendship with little boy. Was why I was not being worried about your social skills."

"Wait a minute, what's the kid got to do with anything? Lilo's in danger, and all you can talk about is that fact that Siron made a friend?" Stitch replied in anger.

"You mean the little kid who went into conniptions the moment Lilith got back on Earth? Got news for ya Stitch, that's how Siron knew to come get you guys." Nosy said as he entered the ship.

"Nosy, how'd you know about that?" Siron asked.

"I asked him to be following you. Needed to monitor your development. But now am needing you both to listen. 199, 628, I need you to be gathering EVERY experiment on island. We will be needing all the help we can be getting. 626 and I will go and try to distract Lilith long enough for you to be bringing help."

"But why am I not helping you?" Siron asked.

"That's simple." Nosy said as he patted Siron on the back. "Nobody will believe just me, but they'll listen you."

"That, and Lilith is not knowing you exist. Am not sure on how she regained memories, but seeing as little girl did not know of your existence until just recently, that means Lilith doesn't know."

Jumba then kneeled down to look his creation in the eye. "You are being our trump card. You were designed to counteract evil monster's powers, but I am not wanting to use you if we can be avoiding it. I want you to stay the way you are as much as you are."

"Yes Jumba." Siron said dejectedly. "I understand."

"Good. Now take this." Jumba then handed him a portable viewer liked he'd given Lilo the other day. "If experiment is not believing you, show them that. And when you and others are arriving, make sure to stay at a distance, ship's long ranged sensor are probably not working on things as small as experiments, but short ranged systems will. We do not want to be showing our hand until is time to make our move."

"Got ya Jumba. Ok Brainac, let's move!" Nosy said as he headed for the exit. Siron quickly followed suit, leaving Jumba and Stitch alone.

Stitch turned to Jumba. "Ok, then what do we do?"

Jumba's eyes turned down as he sighed. "We take the best equipment we have, and hold out as long as we can. I am knowing Lilith had to lure Lilo to her with someone she is trusting."

"Victoria." Stitch replied shocked. _I didn't see Victoria chained up, and I'm sure Lilo wouldn't just wander into a trap. _Then he realized something that made him feel even worse. _Richie, I saw him in the corner. Did Lilith make Victoria hurt him too? He must feel like I did back then, the first time._

"626, must be snapping out of it. We have little time to save everyone." Jumba said as he grabbed a rifle off the shelf.

Stitch came back to attention. "Right." He then noticed the gun Jumba was messing with. "What's that?"

"You should be recognizing it 626, you were using it last time." Jumba said as he finished the last of his adjustments.

"The goop cannon. But she was able to blast the goop off last time."

"Yes, but was severally weakened afterwards, and we need to use every advantage we are having, if we have any hope of surviving this."

Myrtle slowly woke to find herself lying on a cold metal floor. She tried to stand up, only to find that her left leg was shackled to the wall. She looked across the room to see Jason, who had already woken up and seemed to be looking around the room.

"Jason, you're alive!" She shouted.

"Quiet Myrtle, you want that crazy alien to come back in here?" Jason whispered as he turned to face her.

"Crazy alien nothing, I told you Lilo was dangerous." Myrtle replied.

"Yeah, one little hitch with that." Jason said as he pointed to the other end of the room.

Myrtle looked over to see Lilo unconscious in a see-thru chamber. "Lilo?"

"Yeah, that crazy alien took control of Victoria and used her to lure Lilo into an ambush. I overheard them when they came back. I guess I'm not important enough to bother with, since she didn't even give me a second glance."

"You mean that thing can control people too?" Myrtle replied. "But why does she look so much like Lilo then?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I'm not even sure what she wants with us. All I know is she's out of her mind." Jason replied as she leaned back.

The more Myrtle thought about it, the more her head hurt. This didn't make any sense. If Lilo was lying there imprisoned like the rest of them, who was that who attacked them in the woods? And who tortured her and her friends? She looked up at Jason again. "Jason, why aren't you scared?"

Jason looked over her. "I am scared, Myrtle. For a lot of reasons. But what good would screaming my head off do me? It'll just make that demon creature happy. We need to keep a clear head if we are going to get out of this alive."

Suddenly a groan came from the other end of the room. Myrtle quickly turned her head around to see her brother in heap on the floor.

"RICHIE!"

"Myrtle, quiet. You're going to bring her back in here."

"Shut up Jason!" Myrtle snapped. Then she turned back to her brother. "Richie, are you okay?"

Richie opened his eyes to a similar sight. "Where…where am I?" He looked around the room for a moment and saw Jason and his sister. Then it all came back to him: the attack on Lilo in the woods, Victoria being forced to attack him, and that evil version of Lilo knocking him out. Then he remember what she said was going to happen to him, and he began to tear up.

"Richie, calm down, me and Jason will find a way out of this, I swear." Myrtle said as she watched her brother. He didn't deserve this. What did that monster want with him? What did it want with any of them?

"No we won't. She said she's going to kill Jason right in front of you, and then…"

"And then what?" Myrtle asked. She began to fill with fear. Was she going to be next?

"And then I will have Victoria kill him."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice. Lilith stood in the doorway, her wings at full. She casually walked into the room, like she was at a party.

Myrtle felt her insides begin to boil. "You monster! How can you do such a thing? They love each other!"

"So what? Breakups are often bloody. Besides, after she kills him, I'll release her from my control, and she might kill herself in grief! Just like Romeo and Juliet. Won't that be fun to watch?"

Lilith then broke into a loud and terrible laughter, as her captives looked on helpless. Myrtle was pulling at her chain screaming curses, Jason as well, while Richie curled into a ball and started to cry.

Meanwhile, Lilo had secretly been awake the whole time. She listened in horror to Lilith's master plan. _I have to do something. I gotta get out of here before she gets away with this!_ With Lilith distracted by maniacal laughter, Lilo let her wings out and started to charge as rapidly as she could, but nothing happened.

Lilith stopped laughing and turned around. "Oh, so you're awake. How are you feeling Lesser Half? Did you hear me talk about all the fun things that are going to happen tonight at midnight?" She then walked right up the container and looked down at Lilo. "Don't bother trying to charge your wings. That container has a force running thru it to disrupt your energy gathering abilities. You're just as helpless as the rest of these weaklings."

"You'll never get away with this." Lilo said as she gave Lilith a glare.

"Oh, won't I? Just who's going to stop me? Stitch?" Lilith said as she started laughing. She then returned Lilo's glare. "He couldn't beat me the first time. If you hadn't broken free of that little witch's power and destroyed me, he'd be dead right now."

"He held back before, he won't this time." Lilo replied, trying to intimidate her twin. "You aren't me."

"No, I'm not." Lilith replied. "And even so, I've had some upgrades, courtesy of a patron who happens to share my love of suffering."

"Hamsterville?"

That response just cause Lilith to break out in laughter. "That pathetic gerbil? No, I'm afraid he's no longer with us. My patron is a far better villain than he ever was. Which reminds me. After we have our fun together, and I'm finally rid of you, I still need to take care of his little nuisance."

"What nuisance? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you won't be around to worry about that, will you? Let's just say he needs me to nip a small threat in the bud before it can become a big problem."

Lilith then looked over her shoulder for a moment before looking back at Lilo. "Well, I'll take my leave of you now. I think you have a lot of explaining to do to your fellow captives."

Lilo looked up, and everyone was staring at her. Jason had a confused look, Myrtle looked ready to kill her, and Richie looked scared of her. Lilo watched Lilith leave and shut the door before turning to the others.

"I guess I owe you guys an explanation."

"That would be nice." Jason replied.

"Well I already know what you did. I remember you torturing me!" Myrtle cried out.

Everyone turned to look at Myrtle, and Lilo's face took a look of shock.

"What? How can you…"

"I guess the memory wipe you had your CIA friend do on me didn't stick! I remember what you did to me and my friends!"

Lilo looked down at the ground. That was why Myrtle had been trying to hurt her all this time. Jumba had told her that the upgrade on Amensio had a side effect: there was a small chance the subject could regain their memories if exposed to prolonged stress. With Jason, Richie, and everything, Myrtle must have been really stressed out, and when her memory started coming back, it probably became worse.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself, freak, now that you're about to get us all killed?" Myrtle said, her voice laced with hatred.

"I wish I couldn't remember it!" Lilo cried out.

Myrtle was immediately taken aback. "What do you mean?"

Lilo began to cry. "That was the worst day of my life! The memories are always going to haunt me forever. I asked Cobra to erase my memories too, but he wouldn't do it. He said I needed to learn to cope."

Myrtle tried to mouth a replied "But…"

"NO! You don't understand. How would you like it if something made you want to torture everyone you held dear, and then be forced to live with the scars and memory of it even after you went back to normal."

Myrtle was rendered speechless. She had no idea that Lilo hadn't been in her right mind when she hurt her, but it made perfect sense. She had been right, the real Lilo wasn't capable of such acts.

"Then what happened Lilo? How did you become that monster? And why is she here now?" Jason asked.

"Well I guess it's along story, but we have a few hours before Lilith comes back to kill us."

Richie spoke up. "She's not going to kill us, Chris will come and save us."

"Chris? How the heck is he gonna stop her?" Jason asked. "I mean, he's cool and all, but I don't think he stands much of a chance against a super powered alien."

"Hey Jason." Myrtle said as she looked over at him. "You know that weird dog Lilo had?"

Jason's head slumped. "Don't tell me, it wasn't a dog."

No one had to answer Jason, because at that moment Lilo decided to see if she was still able to transform. The light enveloped her as she transformed into Sora.

Jason went bug eyed. "Okay." He said as he tried to regain his composure. "Let's hear that story?"

"There it is 626, right were she was saying it would be." Jumba said as he looked thru his infrared binoculars.

"Ok, so what do we do?" Stitch asked as he looked on anxiously.

"We must move quickly." Jumba said as he put the binoculars away. "If we could only take her by surprise."

"I have an idea." Stitch said as he stood up. He then transformed into Chris. "If I walk up there like this, she won't recognize me."

"And she might just start shooting at you." Jumba replied.

"Maybe so, but it will still be a surprise." Chris said as he headed towards the ship.

Chris had made it all the way up to the ship without any trouble whatsoever. "Well, that went well enough, but I still have to make it on board." He quickly scouted around for a way in, when he found the front hatch open. _Yeah right, like I'm going to come thru there. What does she take me for, stupid?_ He took out a pocket laser he had snatched from Jumba and started to cut a hole thru the side, when he heard footsteps.

"Is that really necessary? I did leave the door open for a reason."

Chris quickly spun around to see Lilith standing there, with Victoria at her side.

End Chapter 12

Next Chapter

The Race against Midnight


	13. Chapter 13

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 13

The Race against Midnight

"Owen, have you been able to find Chance yet?" Mike called out when he spotted Owen down the street.

"No, nothing." Owen replied as he went behind another set of buildings.

"How the heck can this kid dodge not only us but half the police force?" Mike said, expatriated. "And what could trigger him to do that? One minute he's shaking like a leaf, the next he bolts right out of his dad's arms and down an alley."

Meanwhile Siron was busy trying to round up as many experiments as he could, telling them what had happened. He didn't need to show them the viewer, he had already gained a reputation as trustworthy among the experiments, and many of them went to find others. He was currently on top of a building using his vision to find experiments, when one appeared right behind him. A small bat-like experiment with an extremely worried expression.

"Have you seen Victoria?" it asked. (Siron can understand any experiment, no matter how it communicates).

"Are you her friend?" Siron replied with a twinge of sorrow.

"She's my best friend. Did something happen to her?"

"Yes. Something bad. Have you heard of Lilith?"

Snooty didn't have to hear anything else. "Where is Victoria? Where did that monster take my friend?"

"Calm down, I need your help. We need to gather every experiment we possibly can. Jumba says it may be the only chance we have to stop her."

Snooty managed to pull himself together. "Where should I send them?"

"To where Gantu's old ship used to be. Please get as many you can."

Snooty gave him a determined expression. "I will. I know how powerful she is, I was there before." He then took to the air. "You can count on me!"

Siron didn't realize that someone had been watching him, and had taken off running after Snooty.

"I have to keep up with that bat creature, he might lead me to that ship and Victoria. I gotta help somehow."

"Did you really have to go and try and cut a hole in the hull of my ship?" Lilith said as she stepped closer. Her face took a seductive look on it. "You look really good Bugee-boo, I like the human upgrade."

Chris immediately turned back into Stitch, complete with all of all his appendages. "I guess you had Victoria recognize me."

"Well, I have been away for a while, and a lot of new people have entered your life, and lots of things have happened. I just needed some help catching up." Lilith then looked over at her thrall. "And sweet Victoria was kind enough to volunteer."

"More like you took control of her. You can't do anything without manipulating others." Stitch said as he readied himself for a fight.

"Oh really?" Lilith said as she took experiment form. "I've never needed anyone's help to put you in your place."

"Bring it on you witch." Stitch said as he lunged forward.

Lilith quickly took wing. "Don't worry, I will."

The two started to go at it fiercely, quarter neither asked nor given. Lilith tried to keep Stitch at bay by keeping on the wing and taking shot after shot, but Stitch leapt on the ship and started to quickly scale it, all the while bobbing and weaving. One of the blasts connected with the hole he had started making, and it opened, leading into the ship. Stitch quickly ducked inside, he knew to win he had to take away Lilith's aerial advantage.

"Damn you." Lilith said as she landed. She turned to Victoria. "Go inside and guard the door to the prisoners. Don't let him get thru to free Lilo."

"Yes Master." Victoria replied as she took off for the front entrance.

"He wants to play hardball does he?" Lilith said as she blasted the hole large enough for her wings. "I love that game."

"So let me get this straight." Jason said as he leaned against the wall. "You weren't originally an alien, but you fell in love with one. Then his ex-girlfriend got mad at you and used her power to make you evil. Meanwhile Chris's creator had made something to turn you into an alien like Chris, excuse me, Stitch. And in your evil state, you used it and went on a psychotic rampage, nearly killing not only Myrtle but your own family and the guy you were in love with in the first place. And the stuff made you immune to the pink creature's power, so you couldn't be made normal again. Except you became normal again after he kissed you."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Lilo said with her head hung low.

"Are you kidding? After all this I'll believe anything!" Jason replied as he pulled at his chain. "But why is the evil you here now?"

"That's what I'd like to know. And what does she have against me? You were the one I picked on." Myrtle said demandingly.

"It because that thing has Lilo's memories. Remember when it called her a lesser half? I think it thinks it is her, and that Lilo's just a part of her." Richie replied as he tried to figure out how this strange lock worked.

"I'd like to know how she got memories in the first place, and her patron. Who ever it is must be crazier than she is." Lilo said as she banged on the glass.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" Richie said he turned his head toward the wall.

Even thought Stitch had taken away one of Lilith's main advantages, she was still proving to be a difficult opponent. Every time it looked like he'd land a good blow, one of her wings would block it or she'd dodge out of the way. Stitch was getting angry and frustrated, no matter how much he tried to keep his cool. And her taunting wasn't helping matters much.

"Ah, did you get soft on me Stitch?" Lilith said as she deflected yet another attack "Did that upgrade make you forget how to fight like an experiment? Or did it teach you slack off like a human?"

"I'll show you fighting like an experiment!" He cried as he leapt over head into an air vent.

"Running away Bugee-boo? That's not like you at all." Lilith said as she scanned around with her super hearing. Suddenly she heard a piercing sound that caused her to cover her ears. "What is that horrible sound?"

Looking up she spotted a small device. "Oh, like that's going to do anything but annoy the heck out of me." She flew up and crushed the device, ceasing the sound. Suddenly the floor panel came up from under her, throwing her to the ground. Stitch shot up from under the floor and went for her throat, only to have it blocked by her wings. However, he was able to tear a gash in Lilith's right wing, but he still wondered how she was able to protect herself even while off guard. It was almost like her wings were acting of their own free will.

The gash in Lilith's wing caused her to become enraged. "You bastard, I'm going to make you pay for that!" She then suddenly discharged all her energy in an attempt to vaporize her opponent. When the force cleared, she saw no trace of Stitch.

"Wasn't exactly how I wanted it to go, but nobody damages my beautiful wings." She said as she got up.

"Oh didn't it?" Stitch said as he slammed into her from above. "Forget about the air vents? Now who's losing their touch?"

The force of the blow knock Lilith on her backside, and not even sentient wings could help her as Stitch pinned her to the ground. _I got her! There's no way she can escape now, I'm way stronger than her physically._

He was in for a surprise however, as Lilith's eyes began to glow a smoky black. Suddenly Stitch felt as if his opponent's strength had suddenly multiplied a hundred fold. She threw him off her with a furious scream. She shot to her feet and glared at him with those black orbs.

"You just had to go and make me mad, didn't you?" Her voice sounded deep and frightening, as if she was possessed. "Now you're going to really feel the hurt!"

Meanwhile, the prisoners were getting anxious. They realized that the sounds they heard where coming from above them. The sounds of a raging battle between Lilith and Stitch. And they could only hope that Stitch was winning.

"Oh man, that sounds intense. I hope Chris is okay." Jason said, still not used to calling Stitch by his real name.

"I hope so too. But we gotta believe in him, he's the only chance we have of getting out of here." Lilo said as she tried once more to shatter the container.

"Would not be saying that so soon little girl. There is always being more than one way out of a mess."

Lilo turned around to be greeted by the sight of Jumba as entered the doorway. "Jumba!"

"No time for happy reunions little girl. I need to be finding a way to get you out of this cage." He said as he started looking over it for an opening mechanism.

"Or how about a chain to strap yourself too?"

A shot rang out from the doorway, and Jumba barely reacted in time. There stood Victoria with a blaster in her hand.

"Ah, was right! Evil monster did use other little girl as bait." Jumba said as he took cover behind the container.

"This is no time to be congratulating yourself." Myrtle said.

"Yeah, you might want to focus on how to keep yourself alive." Victoria replied as she started around the container.

Richie couldn't bare the sight of this any longer. "Please Victoria, snap out of it! I know you're stronger than that."

"Shut up you little nerd or I won't wait till midnight to kill you." Victoria replied, turned towards him for a split second.

Jumba took his chance and whipped out the smaller version of the goo blaster and took a shot. It hit Victoria in the arm, catching it and the blaster to the ground. "Perfect shot!"

"Why you, when I get free…" Victoria said as she struggled with her gooped arm.

"Nice distraction Richie." Jason called out in excitement. It looked like things were finally looking up.

Richie hadn't meant it as a distraction, but if it brought them any closer to freedom and rescuing Victoria from Lilith's control, he'd take what he could get.

"Jumba, don't worry about me for the moment, get the others out of the chains so they can get out of here before Victoria breaks free!" Lilo cried out.

Jumba, realizing it might take a few minutes to free Lilo, listened to her and proceeded to unlock everyone's restraints. All the while Victoria was screaming, trying to get Lilith's attention.

"Master, they're escaping!"

Jason, as soon as he was free, ran over to Victoria to restrain her and cover her mouth. In response she tried to punch him with her free hand, but Myrtle quickly grabbed it. She then took out a handkerchief and proceeded to gag her with it.

"That should keep you quiet until we get you back to your senses."

Meanwhile Jumba then proceed to being tampering with the access codes on the control panel. "Am hoping 626 can be buying us enough time."

Answering his question was Stitch being flung thru the door at a high speed and slamming into the wall.

"STITCH!" Lilo screamed as she watched him hit the wall.

"I'm ok, I'm fluffy!" he replied.

"Ok, that will not be enough time." Jumba replied as Stitch started to get up.

Meanwhile everyone heard an explosion and the door slamming shut. There stood Lilith, her wings glowing brightly, and a wicked smile on her face. Although her eyes had returned to normal, they still held no less sadism.

"Well, it looks like our battle was just to distract me while Jumba came to the rescue. Good thing I heard my loyal servant calling me before you gagged her, you would have spoiled all the fun Jumba."

"She's not your servant! You're controlling her against her will!" Richie cried out as he fired the goop blaster Jumba had dropped. Lilith quickly dodged out of the way and shot a blast straight at Richie. He leapt out of the way, but hit the floor with a sickening crack. He screamed in pain as the goop blaster slid on the floor.

"RICHIE!" Myrtle cried as she heard her brother's bone snap.

Meanwhile Stitch made a dive for the blaster, only to be beaten to it by another shot by Lilith, causing the blaster to fall to pieces.

"Well, that takes care of that distraction." Then she pressed a button on the wall.

"SHIELD ACTIVATED" came a mechanical voice.

"Now nobodies getting out. And as for you, you little red-headed twit, your struggling will make your death at Victoria's hands all the sweeter. So please, keep it up."

Stitch's eyes went wide. He knew Lilith was sadistic, but this had crossed the line! But he wasn't the only one to react.

"You little monster!" Jumba screamed. "I helped make you, and I will help take you apart!" He charged at Lilith in a rage. That monster had destroyed her last bond! But he was stopped short when Lilith flew in the air and dropkicked him. He flew backwards into the wall, while Lilith just laughed.

"Really old man, did you think you even had a chance? And you may have had a hand in making the original me, but I have another to thank for my new lease on life. But enough about that, I just had a wonderful idea." Her smiled when from malicious to completely sadistic. "Speaking of making me, you hid my most important abilities from me Jumba, but my patron brought them to my attention. And now I'll think I'll use one of them."

She turned to Stitch with horrible glee. What nightmare could she be planning to unleash?

Meanwhile, outside hundreds of experiments had gathered near the ship, only to watch in dismay as the shield came crashing down.

"What are we going to do now?" one experiment cried.

"Where did that shield come from?" another shouted.

Meanwhile Bonnie was trying to keep everyone from going into a complete panic, but Snooty had already flown ahead and was madly bashing at the shield, trying desperately to get in.

"Calm down everybody. There's got to be some way around this thing." Bonnie yelled, trying to keep everything in order. "We gotta stay calm till Siron gets here. He ought to be able to figure something out."

"Why don't we just try bashing the shield in like Snooty's doing?" Kixx asked. Several voices in the crowd were indicating that they agreed with him.

"Because that's an advanced Giga Class starship shield." Siron said as he ran up to the front of the group. "I've never heard of one on a ship so small, but physical blows would be like trying to punch thru a planet on sheer force. Not even Richter can do that without help from the plates' tectonics."

"Then what do you suggest?" Clip asked. She was scared for Lilo and the others, and she felt helpless. Many others felt the same.

Siron sighed heavily. "I don't know. It would take a massive charge of energy at one point to part the shield for even a moment, or a disrupter of massive size and strength." He looked over every experiment present. "And none of us has that kind of power."

"Then what do we do, we can't just leave them alone in there! She could have killed them by now!" Heat said as he looked at Siron. Many others did too, and questions started flying from all over.

Siron collapsed to his knees. He hadn't gotten all the experiments in time, and now there was no telling what would happen. "I've failed. Jumba trusted me and I failed."

Jesse then spoke up. "But what about that little human boy?"

This got Siron's attention. "What human boy?"

"A little human boy. A lot smaller than Lilo or Stitch." James added as he stepped up next to his sister. "Blonde kid with a funny hat. He ran into the ship right before the shield closed."

"Chance…" Siron suddenly felt complete despair. Chance must have gone to try and save his babysitter, Victoria. But he was a defenseless child, what could he possible do to help? Now he was trapped under that shield too. Trapped with a monster.

Siron began to feel himself overcome. Something was happening, and several of the experiments began to back away.

Siron felt himself burning both inside and out, a feeling that crawled from his hands and forehead over the rest of his form. He let out a scream to the heavens.

"I WILL NOT LET HIM BE HURT!"

Meanwhile, Stitch began to back away from Lilith, fearing what could make her so happy. "What are you going to do?"

"Something I've wanted to do for a long time." She locked her gaze on Stitch. He looked like was he was struggling against something, but he gave out. His face became blank as he rose from the ground.

"Oh no." Lilo gasped from her cell. She turned to see Victoria finally free herself from the goop, the same malicious look on her face. "How are you doing this? You shouldn't be able to control them both!"

Lilith smiled like a Cheshire cat. "Smart Lilo. But you still don't realize do you? I'm an improved version of you, and I've actually practiced. Let me show you what else I am capable of."

Meanwhile, Jason was freaking out. "Oh man, she's got control of Stitch, what are we gonna do now?"

Lilith turned to face him and the others, as her eyes became smoky black. "Simple, you'll wait your turns to die." She held out her hand and black tentacles wrapped around Jason, Myrtle, Richie, and Jumba. She laughed as they fell to the ground struggling.

"What…how did you do that?" Lilo said as she backed away in fear.

"Simple. My patron didn't just awaken me, it became a part of me." Lilith took pleasure in the confusion and fear in Lilo's eyes. She then walked over to the control panel. After hitting a set of keys, the chamber containing Lilo opened.

"I'm giving you a five second head start to charge Lilo, and then I'm sending Stitch to kill you."

"No, you…you can't." Lilo replied as she backed away in fear.

"Four seconds."

Lilo started to charge as if her life depended on it. And it did.

A mere second later, Lilith went back on her word. "Alright Stitch. Kill her, and make it as slow and painful as possible."

"With pleasure." He replied as he charged Lilo.

End Chapter 13

Next Chapter

To Find Hope


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Hello again. Writing all those chapters in such a short period of time burned me out, but I got this chapter finished. This, folks, is when things start to get weird. Not crazy weird, or funny weird, this is still a serious story, but I'm going to start introducing elements that will go beyond the scope of this narrative. Lilo and the others are about learn that this may be more than a simple act of revenge, that something else might be at stake. Again, if you paid attention to earlier parts of the story, a lot of this will make some sense, if you think about it. And if it doesn't, chapter 17 will reveal what you don't figure out.

This came from my mind, and as of my mind it shall remain.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 14

To Find Hope

Lilo quickly took to the air as Stitch charged her. _I just have to hold him off for five minutes, and Lilith will lose control of him! I just hope I can hold out that long._

Her plan was quickly shattered by a taunt from her nemesis. "Oh, and don't think you can just avoid him and it will wear off. My control over him is as absolute as Victoria's. It doesn't go away."

"What, how are you…" was all she got out before Stitch tackled her to the ground. He then viciously began to tear at her wings. It would have been over then and there, if Lilo hadn't let out a powerful charge in reflex.

Stitch flew back several feet before crashing to the ground. Lilo meanwhile began to tear up. "Stitch, please. Come to your senses."

Stitch quickly leapt back to his feet. "I have come to my senses. I am a destroyer of worlds. You've held me back for far too long. Now I'm going to get rid of you like I should have years ago!"

He charged forward, hell-bent on killing Lilo. Just as he was about to land another blow, Lilo darted out of the way. He then did a quick turn and came at her again. Lilo barely managed to get airborne in time to get out of the way of his flailing claws.

Fear and sorrow wracked at Lilo's heart. It was happening all over again, she and Stitch were being forced to fight. Only now she was on the other end and Stitch was the one under the thrall of evil. Despair filled her, as tears began to fall.

The others meanwhile watched in various forms of horror. For Jason, who so valued freedom, this was the worst thing he had ever witnessed. He welled with hatred for the monstrous being known as Lilith, and yet he was unable to say anything, as he was paralyzed with fear as the black mist continued to squeeze tighter.

Myrtle had become nearly comatose, all the horrible memories rushing back to the front of her mind: the electrocution of herself and her friends, their savage beating, the fear of death. She fully believed that she would die here, that this sick being would make her witness the deaths of her friend and brother, burning the sight in her mind before bringing her a slow and tortuous death.

Richie screamed and struggled, after being so close to freedom, he was determined not to go down without a struggle. All the years of backing down and cowering had built up inside him, and he released it as he tossed and turned and screamed bloody murder. One of his best friends was being forced to hurt the girl he loved, and soon the love of his life would be ordered to kill him.

Jumba watched as he tried to break free, and realized that Lilo was overcome with doubt and despair. She wasn't able to defend herself in this state, let alone fight back. He knew that she had to snap out of if she was to have any chance of defeating Lilith and getting out of here.

"Little girl, listen to me!" He yelled. "You must fight 626 if you are to be having any chance of getting us all out of this."

"But I don't want to hurt him!" Lilo replied as she dodged an attempt to lunge at her from the wall. Stitch then merely got back up and went for the nearest object. He tore off one of the chains from the wall, taking a small piece of the wall along with it.

"Little girl, 626 is not doing this of his own free will, as you were not once. He forgave you then!"

This caused Lilo to open in realization. Stitch was under Lilith's control, and the only way to save him was to stop him so she could be free to destroy her clone. She would have to hurt him to save him.

Suddenly the chain came flying thru the air like a bola, and wrapped itself around Lilo, the force breaking her concentration and sending her spiraling to the ground. Stitch charged forward, intent on finishing the job, when Lilo's wings began to charge rapidly. Just as he leapt forward to maul her, she exploded with energy, shattering the chain and sending her attacker flying.

Meanwhile this brought Lilith no end of pleasure. "So, you're finally going to stick up for yourself and stop letting Stitch beat on you? This should be fascinating to watch."

"Because of you I have to hurt him" Lilo said as she narrowed her eyes in rage, her wings glowing brighter and brighter. "And after I defeat him, I'm coming to kill you."

All the experiments stood in awe as something resembling liquid crystal flooded from Siron's nails and horn. It flowed and warped as it covered his shaking and angry form, as he screamed to the heavens that no harm would come to that small child. His friend selflessly ran into the maw of danger to help someone he cared about, and Siron wasn't about to stand by helplessly. His secondary programming kicked in, as his mind was flooded with information. Suddenly, he was fully aware of all his capabilities, as the liquid around his body formed into a red crystalline armor.

The armor covered him from head to toe, three sets of spikes along his back, the top ones long, and each one beneath shorter and shorter. The armor, being made of artificial, unchipped crystal, looked somewhat jagged and edged in places, but formed perfectly around Siron's body. He looked like a living crystal statue of himself, with glowing yellow eyes.

"Wow, his hidden programming caused that to happen?" Clip said as she stared in amazement.

"I guess I can't call him 'Dork' anymore." Sparky said, his mouth agape. "Man that looks cool."

Siron shot his head back towards the other experiments, and surprised everyone with his next request. "Everyone who's capable of energy attacks open fire on me, right now!"

"What, are you mad?" Clyde replied.

"Why do you want us to do that for?" Heat said. Many were now sure that Siron's hidden programming had conflicted with his original and that he'd gone mad.

But that was far from the truth. In a strange turn of events, it had turned out that his original, logical programming meshed perfectly with his new combat abilities, causing him to be able to form complex strategies in seconds.

"My body has become a living prism, capable of channeling massive amounts of energy. Combined with my nullification aura, which absorbs incoming energy attacks, and I might be able to defeat Lilith."

"And the shield?" Bonnie asked.

Siron merely walked toward the shield. As soon as he got within a foot of it, part of the barrier began to distort and cackle. He then proceeded to stick his arm thru the shield, causing a rift to form. "I absorb all forms of energy manifestations, both weapons and shields."

"So you make all of Lilith's attacks and defenses useless." 625 said as he stepped out of the crowd with Angel at his side. It was surprising to everyone he'd even shown up, but he had figured most of the other experiments had no idea what they were dealing with, and had come to give 'pointers'.

"But why can't we just go with him?" Sparky asked.

"Because the shield will reform milliseconds after I pass thru it, so only I will be able to go." Siron said solemnly. "I will fight Lilith while Jumba, if he's still standing, can get to the shield generator and shut it off."

"And if he isn't?" Clip asked worriedly.

Siron turned back around to face them. "Then let's hope you can give me enough power to defeat her on my own."

Meanwhile, Lilo was in a fight for her life with the last person she ever expected to: her beloved Stitch. She knew she had no choice but to fight, Lilith had robbed Stitch of his free will, but it didn't mean that she didn't hurt inside. Each blast she landed hurt her more than it hurt him, but she had to stop him if they wanted any chance to stop Lilith.

If there was one blessing in all this, it was that Stitch was running on pure hatred and rage. Lilith either refused to, or was unable to, inspire any other emotions. Being so full of hate caused Stitch to be a dangerous killer, but decreased his ability to reason and therefore plan, and Lilo took advantage of it, dodging and weaving, going up and down, and generally running circles around the enraged experiment.

"Come down here and fight you little witch." Stitch screamed as he started ripping up various objects and throwing them at her.

"I think I'll stay up here until you calm down." Lilo replied as she dodged a piece of the container that Stitch had ripped of its hinges.

"Oh, I think your going to come down from there." Lilith replied as she began throwing blasts at Lilo. Lilo was barely able to get out of the way of the first shot and the second shot grazed her right wing.

"Hey, that's no fair!" Richie cried as he continued to struggle against his bonds.

"Oh. You are so right." Lilith said, putting her hand to her mouth. "Lilo shouldn't be flying around up there, Stitch can't get at her." Lilith then charged up into the air and tackled Lilo.

Lilo gave a scream as she struggled with her attacker. Lilith tried to slam Lilo into a wall, but Lilo put her feet out to brace herself, and instead used the wall to shove Lilith away. She then threw a Comet Blast towards Lilith, and even thought it was blocked, the resulting force threw Lilith towards the other wall. A moment before impact Lilith stopped herself in mid-air, and then started to return fire. Soon the room above had turned into a close-quarters dogfight, with each experiment trying to blast the other down. The wall became pitted with blast holes, one of which had actually opened a way into the hall above. Lilo saw the hole and made a break for it; if she could escape maybe she could lead Lilith and Stitch away from the others.

She had no such luck, because waiting for her at the door was Stitch, who leapt out and tackled Lilo to the ground. Before he could go for her throat, she let out another body charge, throwing her attacker back against the wall. Lilo was beginning to get tired, but Stitch merely hopped back up, he was just getting started. Add to that Lilith, who had now decided to even the odds by flying above, waiting to strike if she tried to get away, and Lilo's situation seemed hopeless. To everyone save one person.

"Lilo, don't give up. I know you can do it!" Richie cried out from across the room. "I know it looks bad, but I believe in you. So does everyone else!"

"Somebody's optimistic." Lilith replied as she stopped circling as she stared down at the red head. "Lilo's going to die, and so will the rest of you."

"Lilo will stop you!" Richie cried as he started to struggle against the shadow bonds "You don't stand a chance against her in a straight up fight, because you have nothing to fight for! You don't have a heart. She does, and that's why she'll save us!"

Jason managed a smile, even though he was overcome with fear and anger. Richie had guts, and it made him feel for a moment that they did have a sliver of hope left. Meanwhile Myrtle slowly turned to the sound of her brother's voice, his words lifting her from her prison of fear.

Yet the greatest encouragement was yet to come. And if hit by light, the shadow bonds around Richie dissolved, as everyone, including Lilith, stood in awe.

"I'm free? But how?"

Lilith merely smirked. "So one of you actually figured out how my little trap worked. The bonds that hold you feed off your negative emotions." She looked at Jason. "Your anger." Then she turned to Myrtle. "Your fears." Finally, she looked at Jumba. "And your doubts." She then turned her gaze back to Richie. "Your negative emotions feed my patron, and in turn he makes me stronger as a reward for causing it. But you escaped with your feeling of hope." She said as she began to float down towards Richie. "I can feel the fear and doubt within you, but the hope eclipses them."

She landed right in front of Richie. "No matter what I try, you still hope. You still refuse to give in to despair."

Meanwhile Lilo and Stitch were locked in a death struggle, Stitch trying to claw Lilo to pieces, while Lilo trying to throw him off. She took her chance and drug her and Stitch up into the air. Stitch tried to struggle, tried to break free, but Lilo held on to him and proceeded to charge straight down, smashing Stitch into the floor. She then backed away from him, because sure enough he got back up. Apparently Lilith's mind control could cause a person to fight, regardless of how much they were hurt. But Lilo was ready. She charged up her body and took off at a high speed, ramming right into Stitch as he was getting up. The resulting force left Stitch imbedded in a dent in the wall, apparently unconscious. Lilo gave a tired smile as she stood back up.

"Sorry I had to do that Stitch, but it was for your own good."

"And this is for yours."

Suddenly Lilo was struck from behind by a goop blast. The force knocked her into the wall right beside Stitch. She was barely able to turn around to face her attacker before the goop hardened and she was stuck to the wall. There Victoria stood with the larger goop blaster in hand, an evil look on her face.

Richie saw this, and immediately his heart became heavy. _No._

"See Richie, your last hope just got pinned to the wall, completely helpless. And by her former best friend, of all people." Lilith said as she continued to slowly advance towards Richie. Richie in response backed away from the advancing black experiment.

Richie was about ready to give up, when his eyes fell on the form of his sister. Myrtle looked like she was slowly dying, her breathing, once fast from fear, was now slow. The sight restored Richie's resolve; he had to do something to save his sister.

"You still haven't given up yet, have you?" Lilith said as she stopped in her tracks. "All around you people have given up and are ready to die, and yet there is always one who persists to the very end."

"Someone will stop you." Richie said, a defiant look in his eyes. "Even if you kill us, someone will come and defeat you."

Lilith took on a look of mock surprise. "Oh, and just who would that be? The other experiments?" She laughed as she snapped her fingers. Suddenly Stitch woke up and rose out of the dent in the wall. "Don't you think I had a plan for that? Or did you think that government agent was going to save the day?"

Lilith attempted to gaze at Richie, but he shielded his eyes. "That trick won't work on me!"

"Oh, I'm not surprised. But if you keep your eyes closed, you'll miss out of the fun of Stitch ending my lesser's life with his bare hands." She spun around as Stitch began to approach the helpless light blue experiment. "Now that she's pinned down, that will make it all the easier. But I want to wait."

As she said that, Stitch stopped in his tracks. Lilith then spun around to look at Richie, who had diverted his eyes towards the ground. "I'm going to enjoy watching as both of the last miserable sparks of hope are extinguished in this room, one after the other." Then she gave a sadistic grin. "And can you guess whose spark I'm going to start with?"

"Alright, all energy shooting experiments are front and center. Ready to fire on your command." Sparky said as he and over 50 experiments, all with various forms of beams, blasts, and bolts, stood or flew in a phalanx formation.

"Remember to lower your hands when you want us to stop." Heat said as he charged up.

"NOW!" Siron yelled as he raised his disruption barrier. The crowd of experiments opened fire with everything they had, all their energy flowing into 628's absorbing barrier. It crackled, warped, and sparked as it nullified and absorbed everything the experiments could throw at it.

"How much do you think he can take?" 625 asked his girlfriend as they stood on the sidelines.

"He'll need everything we can give him if he wants to stand any chance of destroying Lilith." Angel replied as she watched with worry. "I wonder how she came back in the first place?"

"Don't know Angelcakes. What matters is that we get rid of her before she can do any real damage."

Meanwhile, Clyde was pouring on everything his arm cannon could handle. Although it wasn't near as much as some of the others, he'd brought along help.

"Thanks for letting us help, Daddy." Jesse said as she shot spark after spark out of her gun arm.

James turned to smile at his father. "Yeah Dad, we get to prove to everyone we can help too!"

"The more the merrier, kids." Clyde said as he looked proudly at his two youngsters. "Now lets give this hotshot all the power he can handle, so he can go stop the bad lady."

"Okay!" the twins replied in unison.

Meanwhile, Siron looked like he was beginning to hurt really bad. His abilities did have their limits, and he was fast approaching how much he could absorb. Although his null field could absorb blasts like these all day, he was taking so many in at once. He put his hands down, signally everyone to stop.

"You think you're ready to do it?" Sparky asked.

Siron turned back to look at him. "I'm going into hostile territory, with little or no intel on the situation or the layout of the ship. I have no idea how many people inside are either hurt or under Lilith's control."

"In other words." Clip asked.

"I am as ready as I will ever be." Siron said as he stepped thru the shield.

Clip turned back to Sparky. "Do you think he can do it?"

"Let's hope so. A lot of people are counting on him." Sparky said, as he put his arms around Clip's now bulging waist. "Including someone close to us."

Lilith smiled menacingly at Richie, while Richie slowly backed away from her.

"Well, can you guess?" Lilith said as she stood still. "I'll give you a hint."

Suddenly Lilith charged and knocked Richie to the ground. She then turned back towards Victoria. "We're moving something up. Come here Victoria, it's time."

Richie's eyes filled with fear. This was is it. He tried to back away, but Lilith grabbed a hold of his shirt. "Where are you going Richie? It's not nice to keep Victoria waiting."

His eyes turned back to Victoria, and the large knife in her hand. She was walking towards him slowly, a mad glint in her eyes.

"Richie." She sing-songed. "Richie darling. It's time to go."

Richie tried his best to free himself from Lilith's grasp, but as hard as he tried, she held on tight.

"Richie, it's time to go." Victoria repeated as she closed in. "We're going to be together forever."

Meanwhile, Lilo struggled to break free, while Stitch loomed over her, ready to pounce.

"Lilith, don't do this! Leave Richie out of this! It's me you want!" Lilo cried as she tried to charge up, but she was just too tired.

"Quiet, woman. You'll get your turn!" Stitch snarled.

Tears began to flow from Lilo's eyes. Lilith was about cause Victoria to end Richie's life, and there was nothing she could do to stop her. She could only watch as her best friend became a murderer.

Meanwhile Lilith's eyes glowed black, and Richie's hands and feet were bound by black mist. "There, now you're all comfy for your quality time with your girlfriend." She said as she let go of Richie. "Now you two have fun now. I'll be over here if you need me."

As she stepped as, Victoria loomed over Richie. "I've missed spending time with you Richie." she said as she kneeled close to him. "But don't worry darling, soon we'll have all eternity to spend together."

"Victoria, please snap out of it! You don't know what's your doing!" Richie pleaded as Victoria held the knife over his cheek.

"Oh, I'm afraid I do. Men are so unfaithful. Always looking to see if the grass is greener." Victoria replied as she then took the knife to her arm, and made a gash. She didn't even wince in pain as the blade drew blood. "But in the afterlife you won't leave me. We'll be all we have, and we'll be together forever."

Lilith watched in delight at her macabre play, as the actors played the roles she chose for them. But this was only Act One, there were many acts still to go. Next, she herself would cut out Jason's heart and give it to a screaming Myrtle, followed by driving the knife into the girl's neck, so she'd never annoy anyone with her voice ever again. Then she'd watch as her lesser half is torn apart by the one she gave her heart and soul to, and then Lilith would watch him mourn her death before ending his life. And then would come the finale, when she would bathe her hands in the blood of a child, and call upon the heavens to erase this cursed island forever.

And now came the end of an act. Victoria brought the knife back to Richie's check, as she made a small incision with the bloody knife, she straddled him. Richie screamed in pain as the blade cut his flesh, bringing clapping from Lilith.

"Now our blood is mixed, and we may journey to the next world together." She said as she leaned in close. She put her lips to his and forced his mouth open. She drove her tongue into his mouth, and brought him into a deep kiss. Richie tried to close his mouth shut, but Victoria used two of her fingers to keep it pried open until she was satisfied. She then raised the knife above her head, poising to strike his heart. "Do not cry my darling Richie, you will not be alone long, my master will send me to join you." Richie closed his eyes, waiting for the knife to come.

Myrtle's eyes went wide as she saw the blade poised over her brother's body. Her brother was about to die, and there was nothing she could to protect him. Tears escaped her eyes as Victoria readied to kill.

"Goodbye, Richie."

But before she could bring the blade down, she heard a voice in her mind, screaming out to her.

_STOP! Snap out of it!_

The voice blasted out the ones telling her to kill, and it felt like something shattered inside her mind. She suddenly realized what was going on, and what she was doing. She welled up with tears. "Richie…"

Richie opened his eyes to see tears streaming down Victoria's face, her arm shaking. "Victoria?" The shadow bonds around Richie faded away, his happiness and relief that Victoria was alright caused them to dissipate.

Victoria threw the knife aside as she clung on to Richie. "Oh god Richie, I'm so sorry." She said thru the tears.

"I'm just glad you're you again." He said, his voice full of relief.

Meanwhile, Lilith stood in shock. "How…how did you break free?" Then her eyes flared black. "No one defies me! I don't know how you broke free of my control, but if won't kill him, I'll kill you both!"

Victoria and Richie turned to see the enraged creature coming towards them. Both cowering in each other's arms; Lilith prepared to blast them both to Oblivion, when another voice got her attention. "Heads up!"

Lilith turned around long enough to get a console in the face, courtesy of none other than Stitch. "Surprise!"

Lilo had begun to tear up as well, Stitch was free of Lilith's control. "Stitch, you…your okay."

"Yeah, but that beating hurt Lilo. You've been practicing." Stitch said with a toothy grin.

"Oh Stitch, I'm so sorry." Lilo replied as tears of joy continued to fall.

"Don't be. You did what you had to." Then Stitch turned to help Lilo free of the goop. Between his pulling and her renewed vigor, she was able to get free. She then grasped Stitch in a big hug. "Owe, Lilo. That area's tender."

Lilo quickly let go. "Oh sorry."

Meanwhile, Jason saw what happened, and his heart lifted. _They did it! Stitch and Victoria are free! We stand a chance._ The bonds around him melted away, as he shot to his feet.

Myrtle watched as Victoria and Richie cried in each other's arms, and she began to feel her strength coming back. _He's ok. My brother's okay._ The shadow stuff around her evaporated as tears of happiness fell from her eyes.

Jumba knew however, that this was only the beginning. Lilith would most likely be too powerful for them in their weakened state. No one could reach them for the shield, and a mere hunk of metal was not going to stop Lilith for long.

And he was right. Lilith cast off the metal like it was a cardboard box. Before she was mad, now she was furious. "You think this is over!" she screamed. "This is not over. How did you escape my control!"

"Cause you're a bad person." A small voice said from the side of the room. "And bad people always get what they deserve."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice. On the second story catwalk stood a little blonde head child. His body shook like a leaf, but his face showed determination.

"Chance…" Victoria muttered, shocked.

"Chance?" Richie said as he looked at the little boy.

"What that kid doing here?" Jason asked as he and the others stared at the little boy.

The biggest reaction came from no other than Lilith herself, and it was something NOONE expected.

"You…" she said in an angry sneer, her voice deep and eyes aglow with black fire. "I knew I should have listened to him and killed you first. But I'm going to fix that right now, you little pest!"

Lilith reared back, her hands charged with energy. She then let loose a blast of huge power, headed dead on for the boy. There was no way he'd be able to get out of the way in time, the blast was too large.

Victoria let out a scream of terror. "CHANCE!"

But it was too late. The blast enveloped where the boy stood, the force tearing apart the catwalk.

Victoria fell to her knees. "Chance…he's, he's gone."

The gasps from her friends caused her to look up. There, floating in front of the cringing boy, was what looked to be an experiment made entirely out of red crystal.

"You're never going to kill anyone ever again."

End Chapter Fourteen

Next Chapter

Purpose


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Well, here's the butt kicking you've all been waiting for. But don't think this is the end, there are still a few more surprises waiting. Thanks for all the review and for putting up with my flights of fancy. Said flights have already resulted in my being work on a new fic, althought it will be a long time in coming, and won't exactly be a sequal. I'll tell you more later. On with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter Fifteen

Purpose

"628!" Jumba cried as the bonds around him vanished. "You were making it!"

"Siron?" Stitch said in shock. "Is that you?"

The mention of his name caused Lilith to back away slightly. "Siron?"

Siron floated down, his body sparking and crackling with absorbed power. Without even moving his arms, his body discharged a fuchsia beam that collided with the evil experiment. Lilith was thrown into the wall, her body surrounded by a blackened crater. Without taking his eyes off his foe, he said to Chance. "I don't know why you came here, or why your presence caused Victoria and Stitch to be able to break free, but it's apparent that Lilith wants you dead. Get out of here while you can."

Chance nodded his head as he took off back the way he had come, out a hole in the wall. Then, again without turning his attention from Lilith, he addressed Victoria. "Victoria, you and your friends go after him. You care about his well-being, and I ask you get him away from here. Jumba should be able to disable the shields in the meantime, while I take care of this monstrosity."

"What should we do?" Lilo asked.

"You've done enough." Siron replied. "Help Jumba get the shield down."

"But what about you?" Stitch said, still not able to process what had happened to him. This experiment was a far cry from the Siron he knew. That Siron was filled with doubt about himself, about his place. This Siron's voice radiated calm and confidence; he knew what he had to do.

"This is my purpose, Stitch." He replied. "And I'm no longer afraid of it."

Stitch, instead of running as the others had begun to, stood beside him. "I'm not leaving. This might be your purpose, but it's my fight too."

"And I'm staying too." Lilo said as she stood beside Stitch. "Even if you're no longer afraid of fighting her, she's still a mockery of me; one I intended to help rid the world of."

His reply was simple "Suit yourself."

The three braced themselves for what would prove to be a battle none of them would soon forget.

Lilith roared with rage as she pulled herself off the wall. "So Jumba thinks he can make an experiment that can destroy me? I'll show you that no one can defeat me. I am the greatest experiment of all time!"

Her rant was interrupted by another blast. This time she shielded herself with her wings, but the result was the same, and she ended up back against the wall.

"Then why don't you shut up and fight?" Siron said calmly.

Stitch couldn't help but smile. Now the tables were turned, and Lilith was the one taking the beating. "This feels good, doesn't it Lilo?"

"Sure does." Lilo replied as she began to charge her wings. "It's about time she got a taste of her own medicine."

Lilo let go a blast of energy, connecting with the dazed Lilith, embedding her further into the wall. "Now that felt good."

Stitch charged forward, intending to crash into Lilith and start tearing her apart, only to be flung back as Lilith flapped her wings, causing an energy force to send him flying. Lilo threw up her wings, trying to weather the blast, but she was flung backwards as well.

Siron just stood there, not moving an inch, as if the force never touched him at all. He then spoke to Lilo about why her wings gave out.

"I'd advice you not to stand close to me Lilo, my null force works on you as well."

Luckily, Jumba had started his search on the remaining panels in the room, and was better able to explain. "628 creates an energy black hole around himself. Works like wings in overdrive. Can absorb any energy that enters that field and store it, using it to power his attacks"

"And lets just say I had a big meal before I came." Siron said as he stared down his opponent.

Lilith narrowed her eyes. "Energy attacks, huh?" She then let loose a huge Comet Blast on the ceiling, causing it to cave in. "Deal with that, hotshot."

Stitch took a hold of Lilo and pulled her out of the way as the ceiling came down right above Siron. But to everyone's surprise, Siron didn't move. Instead, his body gave off another beam, right over his head, forcing the falling ceiling upwards and vaporizing a huge chunk of it.

"Dealt with." Siron said as the chunks of ceiling fell all around him. "Got any other tricks up your sleeve, or is that the best you have?"

"Why you insolent…" Lilith shouted as she took to the air. "I'll show you what I have up my sleeves!" Her eyes went black and she conjured more of the dark, shadowy tentacles. _Let's see you absorb that!_

To her surprise, as well as everyone else's, Siron leapt away from the shadow stuff, taking flight as he reached the pinnacle of his jump. The shadow stuff then tried to follow him, but he rammed himself right into Lilith, and both started shooting thru the hole in the ceiling. Siron stopped himself short of the barrier, but Lilith, not able to react in time, slammed right into it, and began to spiral back towards the ground.

Lilo and Stitch looked in awe as they watched Siron's aerial maneuver. Lilo turned to Stitch. "Stitch, do you think he was changed by his programming? I mean, do you think he still loves knowledge like he did?"

Stitch gave her a soft smile. "I don't think he changed as much as we were afraid he would. I mean, look at him. Every move he has made so far was planned out, even his disregard of Lilith's threats."

"Really, what do you mean?" Lilo asked perplexed at her boyfriend's meaning.

"Look at how frustrated and desperate Lilith has become. It psychological warfare, just like she used on us."

"I see. Siron's not afraid of Lilith. In fact, he's acting like she's no threat at all to him."

"And it's driving her crazy." Stitch replied with a wide grin.

Meanwhile, the shadow stuff still followed Siron. Finally, he decided to open fire on it, and it evaporated. "Well, at least I can destroy that stuff." Siron had never seen anything like this living shadow. It defied all attempts by his sensors to analyze it, and although it gave off huge energy readings, he was not about to try and absorb it. Something wasn't right about it, and it gave him the creeps.

Lilith had just pulled herself from the floor as she watched Siron destroy her shadow energy. "So, you're as smart as you look. But I've got news for you, that's the least of my new abilities."

_So something has happened, and Lilith has powers that I don't have information on._ Siron thought to himself. _Then my only recourse is to stop her before she gets a chance to use them._ "This is it, demon. I'm going to get rid of you once and for all."

"Oh really?" Lilith said as she began to charge rapidly. "Mind if I take a few with me?"

Lilith began to take everything in, and things began to shut down. First the consoles, then the lights, and even the shield itself. "If I'm going to be destroyed, I'm going to destroy all of you!"

Meanwhile, the others were desperately trying to find a way out. "Are you sure you don't know another way out of here?" Richie said as he held his arm. When he had dodged Lilith's blast, he had landed on his right arm, and had broken it.

"No, the only exit I remember was totaled, by Lilith no less. And the hole made by Stitch is too small for us." Victoria said as they continued down the hall.

"Well we need to find an exit fast. There's no telling how long before those two total this whole place." Jason said as he picked up his pace.

"Yeah, but that red thing looked really cool, don't you think?" Richie replied as he looked in another room.

"I just hope it's kicking the crap out of that witch." Myrtle replied.

Richie turned back to Victoria, only to notice the gash on her arm was bleeding badly. "Victoria, your arm."

"I'll be okay Richie; we need to find a way out of here." Victoria replied.

"No." Richie then took his shirt off a handed it to Jason. "Tie this around Victoria's wound."

"Okay dude." Jason said as he proceeded to do as he was told. Meanwhile Richie winched in pain from his arm.

"Richie. We need to get that arm in a sling." Victoria replied as she reached down for her shirt tail.

"Don't even think about it. We'll use my shirt." Jason said as he took his shirt and made it into a makeshift sling.

"Most boys wouldn't mind a girl doing that." Myrtle said with a smirk.

"I'm not most boys." Jason said as he put Richie's arm in a sling.

"I know." she replied.

Suddenly the wall near them exploded.

"What the heck?" Jason yelled.

Both girls screamed, while Richie nearly fell over.

But to everyone's surprise, Knuckles stepped thru the hole. "All clear sir! We've found the captives."

"Knuckles, you scared the crap outta us. And how did you know where to find us?" Jason asked.

"Good work Alex." Cobra said as he came thru the opening.

"Oh, that's how."

Cobra then turned to look at them and Knuckles. "Get them to safety."

"I guess Jumba got the shield down." Victoria said relief apparent in her voice. But the she turned and noticed that Chance was no where to be found! "Chance! Oh my God, where is he?"

"I don't know, I thought he was right behind us." Jason replied as he turned around. Sure enough, the kid was gone.

"Alex, get these four to safety, I will go look for the small child."

"Yes sir." Knuckles said with a salute. "Come on; let's get out of here before the shield comes back up."

"I'm not leaving without Chance!" Victoria cried as she tried to push past the others. "Lilith already wants to kill him, and he's defenseless."

Cobra put a firm hand on her shoulder. "And what would you do if you found him in danger?"

Victoria stopped in her tracks. "I…I don't know. I'd protect him somehow."

"I will go look for him. You get to safety; I'm sure he'd be upset if you were hurt badly."

"I know, but that monster wants to kill him, and none of us know why."

Cobra looked at her. "Aside from her normal reasons?"

"Yes, she recognized him, and said she should have listened and killed him beforehand." Victoria said as she began to tear up. "And I don't know why. He's just a little boy, what threat is he to her?"

"Don't worry Victoria. I'll promise I'll find him before Lilith does." Cobra then turned and cocked his plasma rifle. "Now get out of here while you still can."

Meanwhile, in a room further down, Chance was monkeying with the bridge controls, when the power started to go out.

"Well, that's one way to take the shield down. I wonder what's going on, did I break the ship?"

He stood silently for a moment as he looked around the now dark room. Then he heard an explosion, and what sounded like a huge storm of electricity. "You're right. That's my cue to get out of here." Suddenly the power snapped back on, and something came up on the screen. Something that looked like system readouts. The little boy had no idea what they said, but the picture of the big gun in the center was easy enough for a two-year old.

"That's bad, isn't it?"

Meanwhile, Lilith was gathering all the power she could, determined to destroy everything and everyone around her. "You…you don't run. Good. You know it's hopeless. I now have enough power to dwarf an atom bomb!"

Stitch ran toward her, in a vain attempt to break her concentration, but was flung backwards by the immense power Lilith had gathered. "Don't bother, none of you has enough power to contain me!" she screamed.

"We'll see about that." Siron said as he flew forward at a high speed. _I might not be able to handle this much energy, but I don't have any choice; I can't let her go critical._

He shot forward, and to everyone's surprise, tackled Lilith. He blasted thru her energy barrier like it was nothing, and grappled her. To onlookers, it looked like he was giving her a hug! But the truth was that he was holding her so his null barrier could sap away her power.

"Let me go! Nobody touches me!" Lilith screamed as she tried to force him off. Her eyes went black, but still he held on for dear life.

_I can't hold anymore energy; I gotta get rid of it!_ And get rid of it he did. He fired a humongous beam, straight up. It pierced what was left of the ceiling, and by the time he was done, the night sky had lit up with his display.

Outside, the experiments looked on in awe. "Well, that's a signal if there ever was one." Sparky said. The shield had already just fallen, and the experiments had been debating on weather or not to charge in, or wait for a signal. Needless to say the argument was now a moot point.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Snooty has already gone in. Let's get a move on!" Kixx yelled. Although the energy using experiments had tired themselves out charging Siron, the fighting experiments like Kixx and Hammerface were ready for action. They wanted to get a piece of the monster who destroyed Lilo's innocence. The experiments charged the ship, running past Victoria and the others as they came off the ship.

"Whoa, that's a lot of aliens." Jason remarked as one ran past his leg.

"And they all want the same thing." Victoria said. "A piece of that monster."

Suddenly they heard something that sounded like a bat squeaking overhead. Victoria looked up with a smile. "Snooty!"

Snooty dove down and hugged onto his friend. "Yes, yes I'm glad you're okay too."

"Is that a bat?" Myrtle asked.

"Don't ask me Sis, I have no idea." Richie replied. Then they heard a yapping sound.

"Gigi!" Myrtle cried as Gigi leapt up into her arms.

Gigi proceeded to lick her owner in the face. "Gigi, stop it. I'm okay, really."

Jason turned to look back at the ship. "I just hope that Stitch and Lilo are."

Lilith fell to the ground. She had been defeated, but she refused to believe it. Her body was torn and damaged, her precious wings tattered and useless, but she refused to believe that a lowly experiment had defeated her. "You…you bastard. Don't think you've won yet. This isn't over."

"Oh, but I think it is. Look around you." Siron replied.

Lilith lifted her head to see that all around, there were experiments. Hanging off walls, outside looking down on her, hovering in the air. They were everywhere.

"No, it can't end like this." she muttered.

_And it won't my dear. We aren't finished with these fools yet. _A voice inside her mind told her. _Give yourself to me, and we will purge this world of everything you despise._

"I will. Anything to destroy that red experiment. And his namesake."

_Precisely._

Suddenly, Lilith's body began to glow with the dark light. She rose off the ground and took her human form. The black fog consumed her form completely, as she let off a painful scream.

"What the heck is going on?" Stitch said as he and many of the experiments had begun to back away.

"She's really a demon!" one of the experiments cried.

"Well, get her before she changes!" another one yelled.

"Are you mad? For all we know that stuff will eat us alive!" came another experiment.

The only experiment to stand his ground was Siron. _So this is the truth. _He thought to himself as he watched the mist twist and climb. _For all that you are, there is something more to you. Something inside you. And that something wants my closest friend dead. _

His eyes narrowed as the mist seemed to tighten on Lilith, if she was even still there. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I will not run, no matter what Lilith turns into!"

A voice, deep and steeped in evil, answered him. "Spoken well, little one. You are truly worthy of your namesake." The mist began to fade away, and in its place stood something that caused many of those watching to gasp, shriek, or even faint. A tall tan woman, clad in black shoulderless armor, floated before them. Two bony wings jutted from her back, and her fingers were sharp claws. Two soulless orbs of infinite black looked upon them, as she gave a chilling laugh. "This will be your grave, this planet. Soon it will be nothing but a barren waste, the suffering of its remaining peoples feeding my kind for generations."

She trained her gaze upon Siron. "And you, you foolishly think you can interfere in matters far beyond your comprehension." She threw back her arms as the room filled with wiggling, twisting tendrils of smoke and darkness. "You will protect no one. Both of you shall die at our feet."

End Chapter 15

Next Chapter

Spirit vs. Spirit


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Well, this is it. It's now or never for Lilo and the others. Lilith has taken on a new and more powerful form by fusing with her patron. (Which is not a demon in the religious sense, but I guess it would still qualify as true evil, as it does feed off the suffering of others.) This is the final battle, and it will take everything they have to bring down the nightmare for the last time.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 16

Spirit vs. Spirit

Stitch backed away from the evil creature. This thing was the reason the Lilith clone had the original's memories. This thing was why Lilith had those strange shadow powers. But what was this thing, that fed off misery?

The creature spoke in Lilith's voice. "Behold my new form! I have been granted power beyond your darkest nightmares! You will all die here, and no one will stop me from purging this universe of all life!"

"Says you!" A beam flew at the monster, and struck her head on, pushing her back only inches. Lilo wasn't about to take this lying down either. "Just when I thought you couldn't become any worse." Lilo said as she narrowed her eyes. "And that other creature, it revived you, someone who wants to destroy the universe. And why, so you could kill a little kid? You're both sick" Lilo then took to the air. "You're outnumbered, so just give up."

"Oh, am I?" Devil Lilith said, the black shadows twisting and snaking on the ground. The experiments had already begun to back away from them, when Devil Lilith raised her arms. "This is what I think of your numbers!"

It was like the shadows suddenly sprung to life, as they shot forward towards the nearest lifeform, flailing and striking like whips. The room began to fill with panicking experiments, all trying to get away from the sea of dark tentacles. But to no avail, as it rushed forward to engulf the fleeing experiments.

"What the hell is this?" Kixx cried as it began to wrap itself around him.

It was the dark voice that answered. "They are larvae, feeding off your rage and fear." It laughed as the dark shadows continued to swarm. "You creatures are such a good source of nourishment; your hatred of my host is most delicious. But I believe the greatest delicacy has yet to be served." Devil Lilith narrowed her eyes in malice. "The throes of the dying."

"You're mad!" Lilo cried as she continued to fend off the creatures.

"Am I?" Lilith replied in her normal voice. "Am I really? The greatest minds of all time were once considered 'mad'."

"Yeah, but they didn't kill people!" Siron said as he charged upward at her. "And you won't be allowed to either!"

Siron rammed Devil Lilith at full speed, sending both of them flying towards the wall, but before impact, Lilith stopped herself in mid-air. She then took a hold of the red experiment by his neck, as shadows crawled up her arm towards him. "You think I'm that easy to defeat? I have news for you; I am way out of your league!" She smiled as the shadows crept over Siron's form. "Devour him, choke his lifeforce away!"

The shadows began to tighten around Siron, cutting off his oxygen. Then it started, the burning, wracking him to the very depth of his being. He felt like his insides were on fire, which was impossible, his armor should have protected him from energy of any kind!

"How does it feel, to have your lifeforce eroded away?" Devil Lilith said in the dark voice. "Doesn't it just make you want to give in and die?"

Suddenly, the shadows were cut away by a blast that then made contact with Devil Lilith's chest. Siron fell towards the twisting mass on the ground, when Lilo grabbed him. She then looked up as Devil Lilith looked down at both of them.

"Hey, ugly. How did that feel?" She said as she flew back upwards.

Devil Lilith howled in rage at the loss of her meal. "You, I'm not just going to kill you, I'm going to erase every trace of your existence!"

Siron struggled to catch his breath. This was far more than he could have ever imagined. This was not an experiment, not anymore. This was a demon, a creature hell-bent on devouring them all. He looked over the scene: experiments were fighting for their lives against a shapeless enemy as it tried to engulf them. In anyone else, this would have broken them with fear, but he knew that if this wasn't stopped here, it would spread over all of Earth. And to the little boy who was his first real friend. Siron turned to face Devil Lilith just as she charged, screaming. He narrowed his eyes as he and Lilo split to dodge, but he charged toward her! Devil Lilith opened her mouth in a hiss, her eyes wide and her claws at the ready.

The two appeared to be on a collision course, when at the last possible second, Siron dropped down, causing his opponent to fly past him. Devil Lilith stopped and turned, right into a blast! The shock caused her to fly backwards. Siron then turned down to look at Stitch, who was trying to free himself and several other experiments from the mass of dark tentacles. _They're never going to free themselves if they flail around like that. They need a plan._ Siron quickly analyzed the situation, and came up with a solution. "Stitch, free Kixx first, then have Kixx liberate Thrasher and Deforester, their spinning style of attack can hit the most targets at once. And calm Richter down before he opens a crack in the earth!" He then turned towards the other side of the room. "I need everyone on the right side of the room to work their way to the center. And remember, these things are only as strong as we let them be!"

Stitch gave a small smile as he turned to his left, tearing and thrashing away at the flailing shadows, which tried with no avail to grapple him. Upon being freed, Kixx gave a small nod as he began to work his way towards the two experiments he was instructed to.

Siron smiled in satisfaction as the two experiments systematically started freeing the experiments that could do the most damage, setting them loose to help other experiments. Then he heard the sound of a charge coming from behind him. He turned around to see Devil Lilith barreling straight for him! He braced for impact, but it never came. Opening his eyes he saw Lilo struggling to hold the demon back. She turned to look at him. "Help Stitch get the others out of here."

"Are you mad? What about you?" Siron asked, still prepared to rush in to help.

"She's my problem, my fear, and I'm not going to hide anymore." Lilo said as she turned to stare down her opponent. "Got that, you monster?"

"Works for me!" Lilith screamed in her normal voice. She started to fly upwards, Lilo in tow. "You have no idea of how long I've waited for this!"

"Likewise." Lilo said as she let off a flash. It wasn't enough too much of anything, but in caused Devil Lilith to loosen her grip, and Lilo flew free. By the time she'd cleared her eyes, Lilo was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did that little brat get to?" Devil Lilith exclaimed as she checked her surroundings. A beam from high above got her attention.

"Here I am!" Lilo yelled as she let loose a powerful Comet Blast. The energy flew downwards, headed right for Devil Lilith, when she blocked it with a blast of her own.

"Nice try. You're getting better. Almost as good as me." Devil Lilith replied as she reared back. "But try this on for size!"

Meanwhile, Siron turned to the battle on the ground. He knew that Lilo was making a foolish mistake, but he couldn't just stand around. He'd have to take advantage of Devil Lilith's lapse in attention to get the others free. He started on the few flying experiments. Freeing them would gain needed air support to get the experiments to safety. After a minute or so of cutting and blasting the shadow stuff, along with several close calls, he was able to get the four or so flyers in air.

"Alright. I need you to get the less powerful experiments to safety once they are free. Fly through one of the holes in the roof, but be careful to avoid the struggle."

The experiments nodded their heads as they set about their task. Stitch or one of the others would free an experiment, and one of the flyers would get it out of the range of the shadows, while Siron provided cover fire. To his surprise, however, the flyers came back with experiments; apparently hearing that their friends were in danger gave many of the energy experiments a second wind, and they came to help free the others, frying and blasting away the shades from the remainder of their comrades.

Siron then turned his eyes up towards the battle between Lilo and Devil Lilith. Lilo had been knocked out of the air, and Devil Lilith was heading in for the kill. Siron quickly turned to Stitch. "Stitch, I need you to take over. Lilo needs help."

"I'll help too!" Stitch replied.

Siron shook his head. "No, I will handle this. You need to help free the others."

"But she's my…"

"I know you love her, but what would she think if you abandoned the others?"

Stitch looked at him, his face showing the conflict in his heart. He then turned to attack a grouping of shadows near him. "Ok, but hurry up. And don't let anything happen to her!"

"I won't." Siron replied as he took off. This was going to end here and now.

Lilo struggled to catch her breath in the midst of Devil Lilith's ongoing assault. The situation was getting desperate, as it seemed that Devil Lilith had an unlimited supply of energy.

"Getting tired Lilo?" Devil Lilith mocked. "Just want me to end it now?"

Lilo looked up at her opponent with a defiant look. "Never. I'm never going to give up!" Lilo then let loose a blast bigger than she ever had. She'd been dodging until now, charging and hoping Devil Lilith would start to tire, but it was apparent that she wouldn't. It was now or never.

"Fine, we'll play that way! Let's see who can outpower who!" Devil Lilith replied as she followed suit with a blast that dwarfed Lilo's. The two blasts collided with devastating force, creating a powerful windsheer, which threatened to knock Lilo backwards. But she held on. She had to. If she let go for even a second, Devil Lilith would turn her blast back on her. Combined with her own blast, Lilo would be vaporized instantly.

Lilo's mind drifted to Stitch. _Stitch. I have to come back to him. If I fall here, even if Siron manages to finally destroy Lilith, it will be the end of my bugee-boo as well. He'll end his own life in sorrow._

The blast center edged closer and closer to Lilo. Tears welled up in her eyes, this was it. She was finished. _Goodbye Stitch._

Then, a fuchsia beam slammed into the blast center, combining with Lilo's own, forcing it back towards Devil Lilith. "We aren't out of this yet!" Siron screamed.

Lilo turned to look at him. He smiled as he turned to look at Devil Lilith. "I promised Stitch I'd make sure you came back safely."

Lilo gave him a weak smile as both turned to focus on their enemy. Devil Lilith just laughed. "This just saves me time. I'm going to wipe both of you from the face of the earth!"

"Oh really, then why is the blast heading back towards you?" Siron remarked as he gave it everything he had.

Sure enough, the blast was headed towards Devil Lilith now. The demon woman furrowed her brow as her beam grew wider with black energy. "You two have no idea of my power! I was holding back before, but now I'm going to give it everything!"

"As are we." Lilo whispered, as almost every part of her body lit up like the sun. Every part of her body was drawing in energy, causing a back-up of energy to form around her, which would normally harm her, but the excess was in turn absorbed by Siron's null barrier. Both poured everything they could muster.

Siron forced everything he had into this last assault. So many people were counting on him. His creator, his fellow experiments, and his best friend. Then it came to him, everything suddenly made sense.

_The bards of long ago say that when one not of this world wishes to touch the worlds of us and others, he must find a single soul, one not for the world._

Not for the world could also mean not long for the world. An expression meaning destined to die! Chance's sudden bursts of wisdom, Lilith's losing control of her thralls in his presence, and his ability to sense her arrival! It all became clear.

"A threat that even the ancients feared. One they wished never to even comprehend." Siron said his voice barely audible over the sound of the blasts. "You are that threat."

Lilo turned to look at him. _What on Earth is he talking about?_

Devil Lilith cackled, the deep dark voice coming from her mouth. "Yes, yes I am that threat." Her body began to glow with the dark fire. "I am a Shadara, a devourer of sorrow and hate."

Lilo looked confused, causing herself to falter for a moment. The blast charged back towards them, immediately causing her to snap out of it and open fire, pushing the blast to the center.

"It looks like the little girl's a bit shocked." Devil Lilith said, still with that nightmarish voice. "What did you think would revive a creature such as Lilith? Her wave of destruction will feed many of my kind for a long time, and she will have eliminated our only threat."

"Not if I can help it!" Siron screamed as he pushed forward. He had found within him strength: the knowledge that not only this world's fate hung in the outcome, but countless others. "I will stop you here and now!"

"We will see about that!" Devil Lilith screamed as the black fire channeled into her blast, pushing it towards the two experiments. "You two don't stand a chance of defeating me! You never have."

The blast inched closer to the pair, despite their every effort to push it back. Lilith cackled and howled at their impending demise. Siron turned to Lilo. "We have to keep pushing. If we lose now, nothing will stop her from killing everyone we care about."

Tears fell from Lilo's eyes. She and Siron were giving it all they had, but it still wasn't enough. They were going to die, and there was nothing they could do about it.

The blast was mere inches away from the pair, when Lilith called out in victory. "Goodbye, you weaklings. Have fun in Hell!"

A final tear fell from Lilo's eyes. _Stitch, help me._

Suddenly, a blast came flying out of nowhere, striking Devil Lilith on the side and shocking her with an intense charge. Her body shook and sizzled, and she screamed in pain.

Siron turned to Lilo. "NOW! Give it everything you have!"

Both thrust forward, sending the charge back at Lilith. With her own powers cut off by the charge, the blast overwhelmed her in a spectacular flash of light, dissolving her into nothing. She gave a dying scream as the blast tore her apart, cursing the victors.

Meanwhile, down below, Sparky had bitten off way more than he could chew. He had wadded right into the middle of the shadows to try and bail Kixx out, only to be swarmed. It looked like the end for both of them.

"Damnit, now I'll never see it." Sparky said as the shadows tried to drag him under. "Take good care of our baby Clip."

Suddenly, the shadows began to flail and loosen. Within seconds they dissolved into nothing, their tether to this world destroyed.

"What, what happened?" Sparky asked as he and several others looked around. The shadows were gone, and one only needed to look up to see why.

"THEY DID IT!" Jason yelled in celebration as the blast destroyed Lilith.

The others had been watching the battle from outside the ship. Richie slowly opened his eyes to see Lilo and Siron floating in mid air, Lilith nowhere to be found. "They did it?"

Victoria immediately grabbed her boyfriend and kissed him, with Myrtle looking on with a tired smile. It was finally over. The monster was gone forever, and she would finally be able to get on with her life. No longer would she obsess with Lilo's downfall, Lilo hadn't been at fault for what she did. And she had just saved everyone.

Lilo turned to the source of the blast, and there stood Stitch, with Cobra's gun in his hands. She gave a weak smile as her wings gave out. Stitch dropped the gun and jumped out to catch her, landing on the other side of the demolished roof. "You okay Lilo?" he asked as he set her down.

"I've never felt better." she said, a smile on her face. "We did it Stitch. Lilith is gone forever, and so is that thing."

"Yeah, it's over." Stitch said, tears in his eyes.

"But I can't help but think something." Lilo said as she turned to look at what had happened to Siron. He had landed on the other side of the dome, his crystal armor liquefying and retracting. He had gone back to his normal self, now that battle mode was no longer needed. "Siron said something during the fight, something I still don't understand fully."

"What?" Stitch asked.

"He said that that thing that revived Lilith and made her that monster, he said that it was a threat that even the ancients feared, that they didn't want to comprehend."

"You mean like in the legend?" Stitch replied.

"What legend?" Lilo asked. Then it hit her. "That's impossible, isn't it?"

Before Stitch could answer, someone's screaming got their attention.

Siron had landed just in time to be rushed by an overjoyed Jumba. "628, you did it! You destroyed evil monster. Am so proud of you."

He heard an 'ahem' from behind him. "So you made another one, despite what the Councilwoman said."

Jumba turned around to be face to face with Cobra. He sighed. He was in trouble and he knew it. But even if he went to prison, it would be worth it to have destroyed Lilith once and for all. "Yes, started process on 628 long time ago, but recently finished. I am understanding I am being in trouble."

"No Jumba, I will overlook this. You designed Siron for the possibility of Lilith's return. And he fulfilled his purpose and saved the galaxy. You have done no wrong."

Jumba gave a sigh of relief, when the only working monitor in the room went nuts. All three of them immediately turned their attention to the computer, which was displaying various red words in Turan.

"Jumba, what's wrong?" Siron asked. He knew what the words said, but he had no idea what it was talking about. Something about clearing a blast radius. The look on Jumba's face was one of pure terror.

"I…I thought it was only a rumor." Jumba stuttered out.

"What?" Cobra asked.

"The Sweeper Cannon. A weapon so powerful it can wipe out a city with one shot." Jumba replied. "And it's aimed right at us. We are all going to be dying!"

Siron's heart dropped. Lilith had gotten the last laugh. A quick review of the screen showed that the cannon was set to fire should Lilith's vitals flat-line. And she was very dead. He turned to Jumba, who was in a panic. "What do we do Jumba, is there anyway to stop it?"

"No. Console is locked. Am estimating only having a minute until death."

"What?" Lilo said as she and Stitch arrived at the source of the scream. "That's not fair." She then fell to her knees. "We lost Stitch. We could never win in the first place. Lilith made sure of it."

"That evil witch. I hate her." Stitch then held Lilo in his arms. "Don't give up hope Lilo, miracles have happened before."

"But what kind of miracle could stop that kind of power?"

Chance stood upon the small cliffside overlooking the ship. "I have to do it. There's no choice anymore."

_I understand, but you assume the risk. The power could very well kill you at your age._

"It's my life or the life of everyone on the island." The young boy replied. "And I won't die, cause I believe in my destiny."

_Very well little one. You have put the needs of others before your own, and shown maturity that not even I could have guessed at. Perhaps you are ready._

"I gotta be." Chance said as he turned his gaze upward. "For everyone."

Eyes turned to the sky as what looked to be a star formed in the heavens, right above them.

"What is that?" Myrtle asked.

"It's not good." Knuckles replied.

One of the experiments activated its sight, and realized that it was a giant beam, aiming right at them!

"That thing's going to hit us!" it screamed.

Everyone started to panic. Myrtle clung onto Jason, and many of the experiments clung onto one another as well. Richie looked frantically for Victoria, but she was no where to be found. Apparently she'd gone looking for Chance after they realized Lilith was dead. Before he could even try to find her to try and flee, the ground began to shake.

"What the heck is going on?" Stitch cried as the earth shook violently. "Is it Richter?"

"No, is not like quake. Is massive surge of energy." Jumba replied, noting that everything that had still been working was now shorting out. "This is it. We're done for."

"No." Siron said, who had been able to remain calm. "A cannon wouldn't cause this before it hit." He then looked up into the sky. "What is that?"

Jumba looked up. "Am not knowing, but cannon is going to fire!"

The star suddenly started getting larger and larger, as it revealed that it was indeed a beam of energy the size of a starship. Only one person had the courage to look as it came crashing down, and he was in for the surprise of his lifetime. The thing he had seen in the sky had stopped right in the path of the beam! On instinct he activated his telescopic vision, and what he saw nearly stopped his heart. Not from fear, but sheer awe.

There floated a man clad in shining red armor, his sword at the ready. There could be no mistaking who it was. Or what would happen next. The beam struck dead on, and that should have been the end, but the warrior held the beam back by what seemed to be a force field. Then it came, the atomic charge. Even if he held the beam back, the explosion's shockwave would destroy the island. But the wave never came. The red warrior swung his sword, striking the beam and its charge. After what seemed like an eternity, the sword gave off a blinding light, causing Siron to shut his eyes.

When he was finally able to open them, the beam was gone. In it's place was a large explosion up in space, the beam had been turned back on the cannon! He watched as the red warrior started to glow faintly, and began to descend back towards the ground. Meanwhile, everyone around him had looked up in time to see the beam returned to its source.

"That's…impossible." Cobra muttered.

"Amazing. What could being doing such a feat?" Jumba stated, his voice filled with both confusion and relief.

"A miracle did happen." Lilo said as she turned to look at Stitch. "You were right."

Stitch just stood in silence, also not believing what had just transpired. Meanwhile, Siron took off running. He knew where it was going to land.

The place he first met him.

On the ground, the experiments had gone from screaming to cheering once again.

"I don't know what turned that beam back, but I'm sure glad that it did." Bonnie said as she hugged onto her children.

"Are we safe now Mommy?" Jesse asked as her mother hugged her tight.

"Yes, baby. You're safe now." Bonnie said as she looked up at Clyde, who smiled back at her. "We're all safe now."

Myrtle looked up at the sky in amazement. "Wow, that was scary."

"Yeah, but I guess it's over now." Jason replied, still holding on to her. "But it was quite a ride, wasn't it?"

"One I never want to take again." Myrtle replied. Then both realized they were holding on to each other, and immediately separated, blushing madly. Meanwhile, Knuckles looked on with a smirk.

"Will wonders never cease?"

Richie had gone to look for Victoria, only to find her staring into space, a look of total shock on her face.

"Victoria, are you okay?" Richie asked. "Victoria?"

At first she gave no response, not even when Richie shook her. Suddenly, she turned to him, the look of shock never fading.

"I know why she wanted him dead." Was all she said before she fainted.

Siron ran as fast as he could to the bench along the path. Once there, he was greeted by the sight of an unconscious Chance lying on it.

"Chance!" Siron called out, but the boy didn't even stir. Closer inspection revealed that his breathing was slow and laborious and that his body had undergone an extreme amount of strain.

"What happened to you?" Siron said as he slowly looked over the boy in worry.

A voice called out from behind him, one he'd never heard, but seemed so familiar.

"He is alright. Tonight has been a changing moment in his life; he has shown courage in the face of death and embraced his destiny."

Siron slowly turned around. There stood the ghostly image of the red warrior, his namesake.

"I believe you may have questions for me."

End Chapter 16

Next Chapter

Namesake


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Well, this took a lot longer than expected, and I have my brother's new X-box 360 to blame for it. Addictive thing. Oh well. I should have released this chapter right after the last one, but I didn't, and now someone thinks I put magic in this fic. There is no magic, at least not in this universe.

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 17

Namesake

Siron stood in shock at the sight of the ghostly red warrior, standing only mere inches from him. "You…you're real. And you're here. But why Chance?"

"I suppose that would be a proper thing to start with." He replied.

He then turned to look up at the night sky. "Chance is a singularity"

Siron shook his head. "What does that mean? That he is an anomaly?"

The ghost like creature continued to stare into the heavens as it gave Siron his answer. "It means this Chance is the only one. There are no other Chance Gleesons in the entire Omniverse. I can only fuse with such a person."

"Chance is the only one? How often does something like that happen?" Siron asked as he stepped closer.

"It's actually somewhat common, but if you were to gather everyone in a world together, you'd maybe find one-hundred or so."

"So it's common on a grander scale?" Siron asked. "But then why Chance? Why him out of all those others?"

"To tell the truth, I don't know. I was supposed to fuse with the older boy, Jonathan, but I was drawn to the child instead. Then he had the accident, and became aware of me."

"So it was an accident." Siron said, as he too turned his gaze upward. "But what exactly are you?"

"You do ask all the hard questions, don't you?" The red warrior said, sighing. "That's just about what Chance first asked me, although he asked if I was magic."

"Are you?"

"Heavens no. Magic is almost always world specific, and I was most certainly designed to function outside my origin universe."

This came as a huge surprise. "You mean you were made?"

"You've been reading legends." He replied. "You know that legends are always blown out of proportion. Yes I was made. So long ago you wouldn't be able to measure it."

"But numbers can measure anything." Siron replied.

"Alright, but you'd need a lot of paper for all the zeros." The warrior sighed. He then looked down at the little experiment. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret on how the Omniverse works."

Siron looked up at his namesake. "Really?"

"Universes are like snakes, biting their tails. They have an ending, but then they just start all over again." The warrior then paused for a moment. "And every so often, the snake sheds and changes not just its color, but its very being."

"I don't understand." Siron said, unsure as to what the transparent being meant. "What are you saying?"

"That the Omniverse is efficient. It's self-recycling. That one world now might be another in the next cycle, or the whole multiverse might change."

The spirit then sighed. "And I've seen it happen so often that it's just an everyday occurrence now, that's how long I've existed."

Siron just stood in awe. His namesake was more like him than he could have ever imagined. He was a creation of some lost civilization, not only itself lost to history, but apparently the very universe that housed it.

The being then continued, unaware of Siron's amazement. "To answer your question, I am a sentient symbiotic bio-energy, created as a last resort weapon by a race long lost to the Omniverse. I do not remember what they were called, but I remember the name given to me." He then paused, as if trying to remember something that happened long ago.

"They called me Sirrion, which in their language meant 'Avenger'."

The experiments were acting like it was New Years, with all the joyous screaming and cheers. It was finally over: the monster Lilith was gone, and they had been saved by a mysterious force from being wiped away by the Sweeper Cannon. It was a strange sight indeed for many of the onlookers.

"Man, this is a lot of aliens. I wonder why no one noticed before." Jason said as he looked over the cheering crowd of experiments.

"Don't ask me." Myrtle replied. "I'm as surprised as you are. Until today I thought I had a dog."

"Yeah, instead you had an alien creature that just looked like a dog." Jason said as he looked down at Gigi.

"Yes, and now she has a boyfriend who needs to be a little less full of himself." Gigi replied, shocking both humans.

"What, this thing can talk?" Jason said as he stumbled backwards.

"Gigi, you can talk?" Myrtle said with astonishment.

Even Knuckles was taken aback a bit. "Wow, now that's something new."

"What? I'm not the only talking experiment." Gigi replied, surprised by all the attention.

Meanwhile, Lilo and Stitch stood in front of Cobra. Apparently he had something he needed to say to them.

"I'm proud of you both today. You stood up to your greatest fear, and even to each other. You have saved the world today."

He was interrupted by a voice from behind him. "Lilo! Oh my God you're okay."

"Nani!" Lilo cried as she ran to embrace her sister.

"Lilo, I saw the lights in the sky over where Gantu's ship used to be. I thought you might be in trouble, but I never imagined this." Nani said as she overlooked the damage. "You must have been so scared."

"It's okay Nani, it's over now. She's gone forever with no way to come back."

Nani's eyes went wide. "She? As in her? As in Lilith?"

"Lilith. Hamsterville cloned her, and then something else gave her back her memories."

"And turned her into even more of a monster." Stitch added.

"Oh wei? What happened here?" David said as he entered the wreckage. He'd been right to let Nani call home. When Pleakly said that no one was home, he and Nani left to see what caused all the lights in the sky. He figured it might have been fireworks, but then she reminded him that fireworks aren't shot out of a jungle. He saw the scared look on his fiancé's face. "Nani, what happened here?"

Before she could answer, Richie came running into the clearing. "Victoria's fainted! I need help."

"Where is she?" Stitch replied.

"She's up on the hill. She just fainted." Richie said, out of breath. "I don't know what happened. One minute she was standing there, the next she fell down."

"Show me where she is." Stitch replied as he and Richie took off back toward where Victoria had fainted.

Meanwhile, Cobra looked over the whole scene. "This is going to be quite the cleanup."

"What do you mean?" Lilo asked.

"It's going to take at least a week to clean up this wreckage, and I'm going to need to make up quite the cover story to cover this whole mess up. And Amensio is going to be busy."

"Amensio? You can't do that!" Lilo replied in shock.

"Lilo I have to. This is too many people knowing the truth."

"NO!" Lilo screamed. "I won't let you."

"Lilo." Cobra replied. "You're being unreasonable. I understand that Richie and Victoria will keep this day a secret, but the other two…"

"They need to remember this most of all!" Lilo said as she turned to look at Jason and Myrtle, who were too busy defending themselves from Knuckles' accusations on their relationship to notice. "Myrtle's finally happy again. She and Jason made up, and the memories of Lilith don't hurt her anymore."

This got Cobra's attention. "You mean she remembers?"

"Everything." Lilo replied as she looked up at the tall man. "Her constant stress caused her memories to come back, which made her even more stressed, and made her hate me even more."

Cobra closed his eyes. "Then there's no point. If Myrtle was able to remember the first time, she will remember again. And there's no point in erasing only one person's memories."

"Exactly." Lilo said with a smile.

"You do know this complicates things even further." Cobra said as he put on his shades.

"Not really. I mean, who's going to believe a bunch of kids?"

"Good point."

Siron's mind swarmed with questions. He knew what the words meant, but had a race gotten so advanced that they could do such a thing? Create an energy being that could fuse with a living creature and not only not harm it, but enhance it?

"I'm not the only thing like that." Sirrion said, breaking Siron out of his thoughts. "You faced another kind of bio-energy today, albeit a naturally occurring one. Although the fact it can even take a host is new to me, but I guess they would evolve it eventually."

"The Shadara." Siron replied.

"Those things started out as scavengers, feeding off excess negative energy created by dying universes. Then they became sentient, and realized that same energy was emitted by creatures in anger or distress. And you can guess what happened then."

"They switched to a new food source." Siron replied. "Are they the great threat legends spoke of?"

"One of over several hundred so far, at least in my memory. And no, I didn't deal with all of them." Sirrion said. "In fact, I didn't deal with any of them. My bearers did."

Siron remembered what Sirrion had told him earlier. "That's right, you are a weapon. Which explains why you need others to have an effect. You might be sentient, but I guess your creators didn't make you self reliant."

"From what I remember, they made sure of it." Sirrion replied. He then looked over at Chance. "And I've never had a bearer this young before. At least, not one that was aware of me."

"Why is Chance aware of you?" Siron asked.

At this Sirrion laughed. "You know, most bearers weren't even aware that I'm sentient. My creators were telepathic, and figured that all bearers would be, I guess."

"So Chance really is psychic?" Siron replied. "He really can read minds?"

"The accident did it. I kept him from dying, but in the process something dormant woke up within him. It gave him the awareness needed to realize I was there. He might be able to read minds, I can't tell that, but I guess it would explain on how he took to his emotion sight so easily. It normally takes bearers years to figure out how to tell how people feel from their energy."

"Emotion sight? What is that?"

"I guess this will be a little long winded." Sirrion replied. "You see, all creatures give off energy, but the energy tends to vary, due to factors such as emotional state and natural disposition. Emotion sight, given that name by one of my former bearers, is a tool to detect this energy, its amounts and the sources."

"But what purpose does it serve?" Siron asked, confused as to why Sirrion would have such a feature.

"The stronger of my powers run off this energy, much as you run off absorbed weapon energy." Sirrion replied. "Although the electromagnetic energies are extremely weak, there are other, less perceptible energies emitted, that are far more powerful."

Siron nodded in understanding, but he had another, more important question. "How did Chance break Lilith's mind control?"

"Simple, with a burst of Eii energy, which has a natural counter effect on mind control."

Sirrion replied. "Eii is one of the less perceptible energies emitted by living creatures, and the least understood by my creators."

"And you're able to control it?" Siron asked.

" 'Control' would be too strong a word. Not much of anything can actually control Eii. At least, my creators never found a way. I can only absorb and redirect it."

"But what is it? What part of a living creature emits it?"

"I don't know."

The answer was a surprise to Siron. Even the ancient weapon had no idea the source of the energy.

The two talked for a while after that, Siron checking on Chance every so often, to see if he was alright. In that time, Siron learned many things, such as what Sirrion knew of his creators, what he was capable of, and of the various types of worlds that were out there. But one question remained to be asked.

"How did you reflect that beam back?" Siron asked.

"I didn't. Chance did." Sirrion replied. "Chance completely fused with me, becoming a quasi energy being himself. He then pulled the Gastra Blade from it's dimensional pocket, and it did the rest."

"But how did it do it?"

"Simple. The blade was made of Dimenion." However, Sirrion quickly realized that it wasn't so simple to the little experiment. "You haven't discovered Dimenion's inherent properties, have you?"

"It has something to do with crossing dimensions, doesn't it?"

"Well, yes and no." The energy creature replied. "Dimenion, when in the proper alloy, has the capability of emitting a kind of 'mimic' energy. Once free from the alloy, this energy then can take on the properties of energy it is exposed to."

"Which means it took on the properties of the blast, and was able to direct it backwards. But why doesn't it just mimic the energies in the air; and how was Chance able to generate the force to push the beam back?"

"Remember, he had me. He simply channeled enough absorbed energy into the blade, which caused a charge of mimic energy to build up. When the charge hit, he released the stored energy much like a cannon shot. This built up force repelled the blast. Of course I was instructing him."

"So it was more you, the weapon, than Chance?"

"Remember, my powers only work when Chance manifests them. He has control of them; I'm mostly an instruction manual."

"Yes. An instruction manual that makes you read him." A voice called out.

When Richie and Stitch (now in human form) reached Victoria, she had regained consciousness. She turned to look at the two as she rose from the ground. "What…what happened? How long have I been out?"

"About two minutes or so. Are you ok?" Stitch asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah I'm alright I guess. But then that means…" Victoria paused.

"What does that mean?" Richie asked as he put his arm on her.

"It means that wasn't a dream. It really happened."

Both boys figured she meant Lilith, or maybe the cannon. "It's over Victoria." Richie said as she held her. "We're okay. I don't know exactly how, but we're all okay."

Victoria sighed. Richie had no idea what she had meant by that. And it was better if he never did. In that one moment, so many questions had been answered, and so many more rose. The small child she considered a baby brother had a greater secret than anyone else on the island.

"Victoria, are you sure you're okay?" Stitch asked her, trying to snap her out of her daze.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Victoria said, looking up with a smile. "I'm just glad it's all over."

"Did you find Chance?" Richie asked as the trio started down the path.

"Let's just say I have a feeling he's alright."

Meanwhile Siron turned to look at the newcomer who stood next to the bench. He recognized the young man standing near the sleeping Chance; he was one of the people that had crowded around him when he had the panic attack due to Lilith.

Sirrion didn't turn around. "Jonathan."

"Was that bright flash in the sky Chance?" Jon asked.

"The flash was most likely the cannon charge being reflected, but it was Chance's doing."

Siron just stood confused. "You knew about this?"

The fact that the little dog like creature talked didn't faze the young man. After all he'd been thru with Chance and the Sirrion, not much surprised him anymore. "I thought you said it would be years before he could transform. That he could kill himself if he tried to do it now!"

Siron, however, was the one to answer him. "A Shadara attacked."

"A Shadara? You mean one of those negative energy beings? How did it attack?"

"It revived a monster to try and kill Chance. The cannon was its back-up plan." Siron continued. "Chance saved everyone on the island today."

"What happened to the Shadara?" Jon asked. From what he knew, the Shadara weren't that dangerous. Mostly they got into people's heads and made them do bad things, like suicide or murder. But nothing like this.

"It was destroyed, along with its host." Sirrion replied. "As to how it is even able to fuse with, much less alter, a host is beyond my comprehension. They haven't shown signs of being able to do that before."

"Then how did it do it?" Siron asked, now worried again.

"I bet it had help." Jon said as he looked down at his sleeping cousin.

"That's a likely possibility. But nothing I know of would have both the inclination and the ability to alter an energy being like a Shadara." Sirrion replied, never taking his gaze off the heavens. "Nor would I know why the Shadara wanted to attack him in the first place. It's not like it would be able to kill him with me protecting him."

Chance began to stir, and as he did so, Sirrion began to fade. "It looks like our time is short. When Chance awakens, this image of me will disappear."

"But there's still so much I need to ask you." Siron replied, his tone worried. "There's so much I don't know yet. About the Omniverse, how to reach it."

"If you reflex on what I have spoken of tonight, you should be able to glean the remaining answers." With those last words, Sirrion faded away.

Siron turned back towards the bench, to see Chance sit up, his eyelids still heavy. The small child slowly took in his surroundings, and realized where he was. A smile formed on the small boy's face as he looked over at Siron.

"I did it." He said in a tired voice. He was clearly still strained from his experience, but it didn't damper the small child's spirit. "I really did it."

"Apparently." Jon said as he sat down next to Chance. "You caused quite the light show."

The boy didn't turn his gaze away from the experiment. "Is the monster gone now? Did you get it?"

"They're gone. Both of them." Siron replied.

Chance just smiled wider, when he heard a familiar voice call out.

"Chance, there you are!"

Chance's head quickly shot around. "Mommy!"

Siron stood back and watched the family, as Chance's parents hugged and smothered him with attention. They had been terrified when Chance had run off after having what looked to them like a seizure.

_I wonder what will happen now._ Siron thought as he looked for behind a tree. _Chance has been able to activate the weapon inside him, now what will happen? Will more things come for him; will he have to leave them?_

Siron turned to head back towards home. He had both faced his greatest fear and fulfilled his dearest wish in one night. But for all the answers he had gotten that night, the questions he now had drove him to learn more. _I will find a way to that place Sirrion told me about. Even if it takes me forever, I will find the way._

The huge experiment crowds had begun to disperse, as things finally started to calm down. After Cobra had talked to everyone about what to say about their injuries and about keeping all this a secret, Myrtle, Richie, Victoria, and Jason went home. Many of the experiments decided to head home as well, the excitement over. Soon the only people left were Lilo and her ohana.

"Lilo, I'm so sorry about this. You must have been terrified." Nani said as she and her sister looked over the wrecked ship.

"For the last time Nani, it's okay." Lilo replied. "I'm glad you weren't here, you could have been hurt too."

"I know Lilo, but I still worry about you." Nani said as she put her hand on Lilo's shoulder. "I remember what happened to you last time, how hurt and scared you were."

"Don't worry, Nani." Lilo replied as she pushed her sister's hand away. "If one good thing came out of all this, it's that my fears no longer haunt me. I'm not afraid of Lilith anymore."

Lilo then turned towards Stitch, who was looking to see where Siron had gotten too. Both he and the small boy had disappeared right after that thing stopped the Sweeper Cannon. Having no luck, he returned to the battle site.

"Well, did you find them Stitch?" Lilo called out as Stitch entered the clearing.

"Not a trace. Thought Richie said Victoria didn't seem worried about the kid, so that must count for something." Stitch said as he walked up to Lilo. "I guess Siron must have took the kid home."

"Yeah, that's probably what happened." Lilo replied as she turned back towards the wreckage. Stitch then stood next to her, as both looked over the damage, and thought about what had occurred. Nani stepped away from the pair, they needed their alone time, after all.

"This sure was a rough night, huh Bugee-Boo?" Lilo said as she reached for Stitch's hand.

"Sure was. Nothing ever seems to be simple in our life, is it?" Stitch replied as he took her hand.

"Nope. Even though we tried so hard, all our friends know our secret." Lilo said with a sigh.

"And Myrtle. She knows too." Stitch replied with a smirk.

"If anything, I hope this changes Myrtle's perception of me. I don't want her to hate me anymore."

In response, Stitch turned to look at Lilo. "You saved her life Lilo. And the lives of her brother and her boyfriend. I don't think Myrtle is that shallow."

"Yeah, but now her friends think she's crazy. And if she suddenly starts being my friend, well that's just going to be the icing on the cake." Lilo said as she turned to face her boyfriend.

"You know you can fix that." Stitch said, smirking evilly.

"I can?" Lilo asked, befuddled on what she could do to help. Then she remembered what she could do, and a smile of her own formed. "You're trying to get me into trouble, aren't you Stitch?"

"I was just suggesting."

The two stood in silence for a moment, Lilo deciding to rest her head on Stitch's shoulder. Seconds later they were interrupted by Jumba, who'd just gotten off the phone with Pleakly. Apparently he was having panic attacks, he was so worried, so Nani decided that they would head home.

As the pair turned away from the wreckage, and towards the road ahead, both couldn't help but smile. No more nightmares would trouble them ever again. They had destroyed not only the monsters in front of them, but the demons and fears in their hearts.

Tomorrow was a new day, and the beginning of the rest of their lives.

End Chapter 17

Next Chapter

A Beautiful Day


	18. Chapter 18

Thru New Eyes

Thru New Eyes

Chapter 18

A Beautiful Day

It has been three months since Lilith's destruction, as friends and family gather for a wonderful occasion. Much had happened in those months, on Earth and in space. A few days after the incident, an agent of the Councilwoman came to Earth, hot on the trail of the deadly world destroying weapon, the Sweeper Cannon, but found it totaled. Upon his reporting the details of its destruction, which Cobra had said was that the cannon destroying itself, the Councilwoman made a visit herself. After assuring that everything was in order, and never discovering Siron, she made her way back home after congratuating Lilo and Stitch.

Meanwhile relationships flourished all around them. Richie and Victoria had begun to spend much more time together, even if it was just walks along the beach or a movie. However, they often had to put up with a little tag along every now and then; which Victoria preferred, since the alternative, an unsupervised Chance, often led to something breaking or blowing up. (She still had no idea where he was getting the things that blew up.) Jason and Myrtle, on the other hand, often had several third wheels, namely Myrtle's entire posse. After learning that they had gotten back together, they forgot all about Myrtle's previous obsession with Lilo, and focused entirely on following the pair everywhere they went. (As to why, Myrtle assumed they were jealous.)

Now the sun shines brightly, not a cloud in the sky, as the gathering reached its climax.

"You may kiss the bride."

After so many years of putting it off and waiting, the day had finally come for David and Nani to wed. The bride's side was noticeably small, with only her ohana and few of her and her sister's friends, but Nani was glad that they were there. She'd almost lost her sister twice in a year's time, and was glad that she would finally be safe. David was the happiest he'd been in his entire life. After so many tries, then so many delays, he was finally marrying the love of his life.

"It's so wonderful." Pleakly said with a tear in his eye.

"Yes, yes is being very nice. Let see how long it will be lasting." Jumba replied, looking bored. Lately Siron had been up late working on something, and Jumba was interested in seeing what his creation had been up to.

"Spoilsport." Pleakly replied. "This is a happy occasion! Just because you're marriage went sour…"

Meanwhile Stitch's attention was divided between the newly married couple and the argument, when Lilo tapped him on the shoulder. "Stitch are you paying attention at all?"

"I can't help it. It's always fun to watch Jumba and Pleakly argue."

Lilo narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't care. You'd better be paying attention to the wedding. After all, you need to know what to do when we do this."

Stitch gulped. "Aren't you getting a little ahead…" Lilo then cut him off with a glare.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lilo said angrily.

Thinking quickly, Stitch responded. "I mean we aren't getting married for a long time, why are you worried about it now?"

Lilo sighed. "I guess you're right. Still, it doesn't hurt to dream about it."

"That's true. Took them forever didn't it?"

"You can say that again, it seems that way, huh?" Lilo said as she stood up "Yeah, but I guess that was partially our fault."

"How's that?" Stitch replied as he followed suit.

"Experiment hunting, getting in trouble constantly" Lilo paused a second before she finished. "Lilith."

Stitch frowned at that name. "Lilo, I thought we agreed we'd never speak of her again?"

"I know." Lilo began, "But it's so hard, all the damage she did."

Stitch embraced Lilo. "It's alright. She's gone. And for all the damage she did, a lot of good came out of it."

Lilo cracked a small smile. "You mean like Jason and Myrtle?"

"And Victoria and Richie. And us." Stitch replied as he looked her in the eyes.

"It made our love stronger." She said as she drew closer. The pair met in a kiss, as the crowd looked on.

"Now there is being relationship guaranteed to last." Jumba said as he watched the pair embrace.

"That's something we can agree on."

Meanwhile, Siron had just finished running another scan of Chance, trying to figure out how the energy creature within him worked. It had taken months just to invent a scanner that could actually make it out at all, and he still wasn't sure if it was actually the Sirrion or just a false image created by a faulty device.

"Sigh, I just cannot figure it out. What is this energy? It's like nothing anyone in the Galactic Alliance has ever seen. Nothing in the databases even comes close to matching its signature." Siron then turned to look at Chance, seeing him messing with several devices. "Be careful Chance, some of those things are dangerous."

"They don't look dangerous."

"That's what you said about the last 7 things you managed to blow up."

"Nuh uh, one of them melted."

"Yes, the Hydrometation Unit did dissolve, because you set it to create hydrotonic acid. It dissolved and so did several other objects, as well as part of the floor."

"But it didn't blow up."

Siron put his hand to his head. He had come to realize that Chance, although observant for an eight-year old, had a great sense of curiosity and very little in the way of common sense. "Yes, I suppose that's true. I'll be done in just a minute, then you can show me how to play that card game of yours."

A few minutes passed while Siron finished his calculations. From what he could tell, the energy readings would spike every so often, and whither or not this was Chance's doing, or it being the mere nature of it, he could not be certain. He put down the readouts and turned around. Chance wasn't there.

"Now where did Chance go?" Siron wondered aloud. His eyes fell on one of the worktables, where Jumba had been working on a pair of micronized rocket boosters, one of his 'see if he could be doing it' projects. They weren't there. He ran outside, and his eyes went wide. "Oh no."

Meanwhile the wedding had just gotten a lot more exciting for a certain couple. "I caught it! I caught it!" Lilo cried in excitement. She then cast a seductive glance at her boyfriend, and Stitch gulped.

"Looks like someone's days are numbered." One guest commented.

"As she's letting him know it, ain't she?" Replied another.

"Oh no, I don't care if she did catch the bouquet, she's not getting married for a LONG time." Nani replied as she got back down from the stage.

"Lighten up Nani, It's just a superstition." David replied as he helped her down. "Besides," David then whispered. "It'll be fun to watch Stitch squirm for the rest of the evening."

Nani let out a small laugh. "You're right. I should lighten up. It is the greatest day of my life after all."

"Exactly."

Nani then turned to look at Lilo and Stitch, who were sitting next to one another, Lilo holding the flowers up to Stitch, and Stitch scratching his head, with a nervous grin. Nani then turned back to her new husband. "It's amazing how much those two have matured in such a short time." Nani said, sighing. "It seems like just yesterday they were causing trouble all over the island. Now they look so grown up."

"You had a hand in that, you know." David said as they began to dance.

Meanwhile, Lilo and Stitch were continuing their discussion on THEIR impending marriage. "So what should we do for a wedding cake?"

"Umm… I don't know." Stitch replied stuttering. He was being to wish she had never caught that stupid bouquet of flowers.

"Stitch, that's been your reply to everything! We need to get serious about this. None of the other girls will be able to get married until I do. Don't you know that? We don't want to make them wait forever."

"Lilo, that's just made up." Stitch replied.

"Is it Stitch?" Lilo then got her face extremely close to his. "Is it really?" She then smiled wide. The nervousness in Stitch's eyes was just too much. She started laughing. "I had you going there, didn't I?"

Stitch let out a sigh of relief. "Really funny Lilo."

"I know." Lilo replied. "It was funny."

Stitch just glared at her, but then he smiled back. "I don't know why you are in such a hurry to get married. After all we been thru, would it actually make our bond any stronger?"

"No, but it would declare it to the world." Lilo said as she looked into his eyes.

"I don't care what the world knows or thinks." Stitch said as he drew in close. "All I care about is you."

The pair met in a light kiss while Pleakly looked upon them from a distance. "Sigh, it's just so wonderful. Love everywhere."

"Yes, yes, is very nice. Now where are those little sausages?" Jumba replied as he scanned the buffet table.

"Jumba! How can you think about food at a time like this!" Pleakly said, glaring at him.

"Is simple. Just think about it is all."

"I can't believe you. There's beauty all around, and you're concerned with cocktail wieners." Pleakly then squinted, as if straining to here a distant sound. "Do you hear something?"

Jumba had to struggle to hear it at first as well, but it soon became clearer as the source drew closer. "Is sounding like low roaring, like rocket boosters."

"Rocket boosters, now who would …"

Pleakly didn't get to finish his sentence, as he noticed the small red wagon coming up in the distance, a pair of Jumba's micro-rocket boosters strapped to each side. Apparently while Siron had been finishing his tests, Chance had gotten the bright idea to see if he could break the sound barrier in a toy wagon.

"WEEEEE!" Chance yelled as he shot past the wedding, getting everyone's attention in the process.

Mere seconds later, Siron ran past the crowd, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Chance, those are not toys!"

Jumba couldn't help but smile. "Ah, is reminding me of days as evil genius child prodigy, those were good times."

"Good times? Good times! That little boy could get hurt, and all you can do is reminisce about your childhood?" Pleakly exclaimed. "Why don't you keep stuff like that locked up!"

Jumba just rolled his eyes. 628 would have transformed if the boy was in any real danger, and he had suspicions that something was abnormal about that child, but what remained unclear.

Meanwhile, Lilo just looked over at Stitch. "You wanna tell Victoria that her favorite 8-year old is flying down the street at 100 miles an hour, or should I?"

"Naw, I think she'll know in a few seconds." Stitch replied as they watched the pair disappear in the distance.

Meanwhile a young couple had just left the movie theater. "Wow, that movie was better than I thought it would be." Victoria said as she and her boyfriend stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"I told you it would be, the first two were great, and this one was the best one yet." Richie replied as the pair turned to head down the street.

"Yeah, I guess you were right, I just usually don't like superhero movies." Victoria said as she turned on her cell phone. "Well, no messages, that's always a good sign."

Richie just smirked a little. "Yeah, it means your little brother hasn't broken anything today." Richie would often refer to Chance as Victoria's 'little brother', which pretty well describe her relationship with the 8 year old.

Victoria giggled a little, when she remembered that Nani and David were getting married today. "Oh man, I forgot that Lilo's big sister is getting married today! I hope Lilo wasn't expecting me to show up."

"Naw, I asked Stitch if I could come, but he said they were trying to keep the wedding small." Richie replied. "Besides, I know they will invite us to their wedding."

"Yeah, now that won't be a small affair. 600+ of Stitch's family, plus Lilo's."

"They are going to need a stadium to hold their wedding." Richie said as he pressed the button at the crosswalk. He then heard a roaring sound. "What is that?'

Both turned their heads in the direction of the sound, and at the speck in the distance. Victoria muttered under her breath. "Please don't let that be Chance, please don't let that be Chance."

As it came into view, Richie sighed. "So much for a quiet afternoon."

The wagon zoomed by, Chance waving as he passed. "Hi Victoria!"

Victoria just stared in shock for a moment before taking off after the speeding boy. "Chance you're going to hurt yourself! Stop this instant before I call your mom!"

"Victoria he's not going to hear you." Realizing that she was going to chase after him anyway, he rolled his eyes as he took off after her. "I don't care what she says, when we grow up, I don't want a kid like him. My hair would be white before I'm forty!"

Meanwhile Siron had finally caught the wagon, having leapt off a hill that Chance had gone around. Now he was hanging on for dear life, as the wagon continued its wild journey across the island. "Chance, what possessed you to do this?"

"Well, I always wanted to be like Calvin and Hobbies." The boy replied.

"You do know what happens at the end of those strips, right?" Siron said as he pulled himself aboard.

"Umm… maybe."

All and all, it had been a good day for Myrtle Evans. Her mom and dad had decided to take a weekend together, and Richie was with Victoria, seeing some spider movie, which left her all day to do what she wanted. But she didn't call her friends up, she decided to spend the day with Jason. They had started spending a lot more time together after the incident, and now that Knuckles and most of the girls had gone off to summer camps, they pretty much went everywhere together. They had just gotten finished eating lunch and were headed for the mall.

"Seriously, you didn't have to pay for your own lunch back there, I had enough to cover it." Jason said as they walked towards the mall.

"A strong woman stands on her own two feet." Myrtle replied. She had changed quite a bit since her run in with Lilith, in the fact that she didn't take advantage of others. She was still bossy and thought she was right, but Jason figured that couldn't be helped.

"Yeah, but if my mom finds out, I'm going to get it." Jason replied as the pair started to cross the street.

"You worry too much. It's none of her business what we do anyway."

Jason was about to reply that his mother had a habit of making things her business, when he heard a roaring sound.

"What the…" Jason's eyes then went wide as he grabbed Myrtle's arm, jerking her to the side.

"What are you doing?" Myrtle exclaimed, only to see a rocket wagon zoom past them.

"Sorry!" Chance called out as the wagon sped away.

Myrtle and Jason just looked dumbstruck. Finally Myrtle reached into her purse for her cell phone and dialed a number, while Jason just shook his head. "Man, that kid's nuts."

"Hello, Victoria. Do you realize that little pest nearly ran me over?"

"_Do you know where he went?"_

"He's headed toward the mall." Myrtle replied. "And where the heck did he get rocket boosters!"

"Probably the same place he got that weird box that made a ton of lightning before it took a chunk outta the sidewalk." Jason replied as his eyes followed the skid marks. "Kid must think he's invincible or something."

"He's a headcase, that's what he is." Myrtle replied.

"_He is not a headcase!" _ Victoria screamed over the phone.

Jason just rolled his eyes as the two girls argued. He then started off in the direction of the mall.

Myrtle turned her head long enough to see that her boyfriend was taking off. "Where are you going?"

"To see how big a crater that thing makes when he crashes it into Mike's Hobbies." Jason replied.

Both could clearly make out Victoria screaming over the phone. _"What, you actually think that's funny!"_

"Nobody thinks it's funny, Victoria, but that's what is going to happen." She then turned back to Jason. "How do you know that he's going there?"

"Cause that's where he ended up last time." Jason replied as he picked up his pace

"Fair enough." Myrtle replied as she followed him. "Wait, what do you mean last time?"

Meanwhile Richie was out of breath trying to keep up with Victoria, who was screaming into her phone as she ran. "We'll never catch up to him at this rate."

A car pulled up to the pair, the window rolling down. "Need a lift?"

Jon didn't wait for a response from the out of breath pair. He popped the lock on the back door. "Better hurry if we want to catch the speed demon before he runs someone over."

Meanwhile, Chance and Siron's wild ride had taken them into the busy shopping center where Mike's Hobbies was located. Fortunately, the rockets seemed to have run out of fuel and the pair had been slowing down ever since they had passed the hilltop. However, they were still going too fast to stop, and people were screaming as they had near misses with the rocket wagon. "Excuse me, pardon me, sorry!" Chance called out as various people dodged out of the way of the runaway wagon.

"Hey!"

"What the heck?"

"Watch where you're going you stupid kid!"

Mike had just opened his doors for business when he heard screams. His head tilted towards the sky as he muttered, "Not again." He looked down just in time to see Chance coming down the path towards the shop.

"Chance, look out!" Siron screamed as the two got near the wall. Chance pulled hard on the handle and the wagon took a hard left, right into a bush. The force of the impact thru both from the wagon and into another hedge.

Mike ran over to Chance. "You okay kid?" Chance appeared to be completely uninjured, and Mike was able to breathe a sigh of relief. "Crazy kid." He looked over the wagon, now tilted up and examined the boosters. "I swear I can't figure out where he's getting these things."

Suddenly the boosters started up again, and the wagon sailed off into the sky. Chance looked over to Siron. "That one didn't blow up either."

Siron just stared up as the wagon flew out of sight. _No, but it will still make a crater when it lands, IF it lands. _Siron had no idea what Chance was thinking, he could have been killed.

"I'd have called on him if we didn't slow down. It helps when I'm in danger." Chance said nonchantly.

Siron when wide eyed. _Is that what Chance has been trying to do all this time, cause himself to change into the Sirrion?_ "Chance, you aren't supposed to play with those powers."

"I know, but we better not talk about it anymore, Mike's just about finished shooing away the tourists."

"There's nothing to see here, just some stupid kid and his dog. Move along, you're blocking my shop entrance." Mike said as he finished breaking up the crowd. He then turned to Chance. "I swear they need to put you on a leash, never mind your dog."

At that moment Jon's car pulled into a parking space. Victoria shot out of the car and hugged Chance. "You're okay!" Chance gave a big grin as Victoria checked him over for bruises, at least until his gaze fell on Richie, at which point he stuck out his tongue.

Richie just looked at him for a second until he realized what he was trying to do. _Wait a second; has he been doing all of this to get Victoria's attention?_

Jon walked up to Richie as Victoria started to scold Chance for his recklessness. "Don't worry kid, Chance will get over it. First crushes often end in heartbreak, and the little guy just isn't ready to accept that yet."

Richie's eyes went wide. That's why Chance always followed Victoria around, and why he wouldn't let anyone else baby-sit him. He had a crush on her. And that's why he'd tried to come to the rescue that night.

Richie instinctively moved towards the pair, but felt a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about Chance; I've got something that will get his attention away from Victoria."

Jon said as he reached for something in his bag. "Chance, look what just came in the mail today!"

Chance turned away from Victoria, and as he laid eyes on the case in Jon's hand, he tore out of Victoria's grip and ran to Jon. "It's here! My DVD got here!"

Mike took one look at the case. "Oh no, If he watches that, you're minding the store."

"Now come on, you liked the American version of the show." Jon said he gave Chance the DVD.

"Yes, I did. And the Japanese absolutely ruined."

"You watched the Powerpuff Girls Mike?" Owen said as stepped outside.

"Shut up Owen."

Meanwhile as Chance looked over the DVD case, Jon looked back over at Richie and Victoria. Richie was glaring over at Chance. Jon then turned back to the little boy. "Her boyfriend's on to you, better make a run for it." Chance took one more look at Richie, and stuck his tongue out again before running inside.

"What's the matter dude, scared that an eight year old is trying to compete with you?" Jason said as he and Myrtle finally arrived at the scene. "I thought you gotten over that confidence problem?"

"Jason, leave my brother alone." Myrtle said as she straightened her dress. "That kid is enough to annoy anybody."

"Eh, all kids act out for attention." Jason replied. "Least I did anyway."

Myrtle sighed. "Always about you, isn't it?"

Richie meanwhile just shook his head. "Naw, it's okay. You're both right. He's just acting out for attention." He then sighed heavily. "I just don't know why Victoria falls for it every time."

Unbeknownst to the trio, Victoria heard every word of their conversation. "Richie, I'm sorry if my looking out for Chance upsets you so much."

Richie immediately turned around. "No, no, it's not that." He said defensively.

"No, it is that, and I guess I should explain why." Victoria said as she put her arm on his shoulder. "But I don't want to discuss it here, okay?"

Richie turned back to the others. "I'm going to go with Victoria. I guess I'll see you at home Myrtle."

"Alright." Myrtle replied. "But don't be late for dinner, I am so not covering for you this time."

"We won't be long." Victoria said as she took Richie's hand and led him away.

"You'd better not be." Myrtle said as she turned around. "Let's hit the mall before we go home Jason."

Then she realized Jason wasn't there. She turned to face the shop window. Sure enough, Jason was watching TV with Chance. Once she realized what was on, she rolled her eyes.

"Magical girl anime, it never fails to distract him from anything and EVERYTHING."

Victoria and Richie had just reached a hill overlooking the beach, when Victoria stopped for a moment..

"Ok, Richie, I guess I owe you an explanation." Victoria said as she turned to look at him.

"Yeah, but why out here?" Richie replied.

"Because I don't want just anyone to hear this, especially not the others or Chance." Victoria said as she turned to face him. "You see, it was almost four years ago that my mom announced that she was pregnant again."

Richie was taken aback. _Wait, Victoria doesn't have any siblings, so why would she say her mother had gotten pregnant again four years ago._ Whatever the answer, Richie knew this wasn't a happy story.

While Richie was lost in his thoughts, Victoria continued. "At first I was worried. I wondered if Mom and Dad would pay any attention to me after the new baby came, or if I'd just fade away to them."

"But then the baby was born. My little brother Charlie."

Richie interrupted her. "But I thought you didn't have any siblings."

Victoria turned her head down as a tear began to fall. "I don't. Not anymore."

She fought back tears as she looked back up at Richie. "I fell in love with my little brother the moment I first saw him. I swore to myself that I would always take care of him, no matter what."

"What happened?" Richie asked, his attention now focused totally on her.

"It was great for a long time. I watched him learn to crawl, and then learn to walk only a few months after. He was such a smart baby, he could even say my name. 'Sis sis' he called me."

Tears began to stream down her cheeks, even as she fought to keep it inside. "But one day, a few weeks after his first birthday, he got very sick. Mom and Dad rushed him to the hospital. The doctors said it was a very bad case of pneumonia, and that Charlie might not make it thru the night. And he didn't."

Victoria broke out crying as Richie held her. It then suddenly dawned on him where they were. Their walk had taken them right into the cemetery near the church. Richie looked down, and there he saw a small stone with the words inscribed: _Charlie Garrison Nov 19 2003- Dec 16 2004 We will always remember our little ray of light._

"Victoria, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you'd lost a brother." Richie said, holding her close, letting her tears stain his shirt. "Do any of your friends know?"

"Just Lilo and Stitch, they are the only ones that ever saw him alive." Victoria said, he sobs subsiding for a moment. "But even they don't know the next part."

"What next part?" Richie asked, confused.

"The part that involves Chance." Victoria said, her sobs starting up again. "It was just a month later that Chance moved in across the street."

Victoria sobs became stronger as she spoke. "He looked so much like my little brother; what I imagined he'd be when he got older. I guess…I guess I."

"You started to pretend Chance was Charlie." Richie said, as he held her closer. It all made sense now. Chance was a substitute for the little brother Victoria had lost. That's why she always fussed over him and worried about him.

Victoria could barely be understood for her sobbing. "I know it isn't fair to Charlie, to just replace him with someone else, but it just hurt so much. I never told Mom and Dad, I'm scared what they'd think of me."

"It's okay Victoria. It's okay." Richie whispered to her. "I can't imagine what I'd do if Myrtle died. But you are right about something."

"What?" Victoria said, her eyes meeting his.

"It isn't fair, to either of them." Richie replied, his voice still soft.

"I don't understand." Victoria said, afraid Richie was disgusted with her. "Please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, Victoria. I could never hate you. But Chance doesn't feel for you that way." Richie turned his gaze away from her. "He feels about you the way I do. Jon told me he's had a huge crush on you for a while."

Victoria was silent for a moment, then replied. "I know. I didn't want to hurt him, so I couldn't bring myself to tell him. I mean, after that day in the comic shop, when he said you were my boyfriend, I thought he'd gotten over it."

"But then he faced down Lilith to try and save you."

"Just as I was about to kill you, I heard his voice screaming in my mind, and I broke free. I didn't understand how at the time, but…never mind."

"But what? What are you talking about?" Richie asked.

"It's nothing important." Victoria replied, her tears drying up. "Thanks for listening Richie."

Richie knew there was more to it, but he also knew that he probably wasn't going to get an answer out of her tonight. "Let's go home Victoria, it's getting late."

"Yeah, let's go home."

Lilo and Stitch had decided to go flying after the wedding. Lilo had changed into a tank top that had a place for her wings to break thru, and Stitch had warped his appearance back to his normal attire. "It sure has been a long day, hasn't it?" Stitch said as the pair soared along the beach.

"Yeah, it has, but it was fun." Lilo replied. "And I did catch the bouquet."

"Please stop talking about those stupid flowers." Stitch said as they passed near the old cemetery.

"Spoilsport." Lilo huffed.

Stitch turned his gaze downward, and his eye caught Victoria and Richie leaving the graveyard. "I wonder what Victoria and Richie are doing down there?"

Lilo didn't even look down, knowing exactly what, or who, was of interest there. "She told him about Charlie." Both became quiet as Lilo touched down on a nearby hill.

"I figured she would eventually." Lilo continued. "It's really sad how all that happened."

"Yeah, losing someone you care about is never easy." Stitch replied as he took his normal form.

"Let's not dwell on that though." Lilo replied as she sat down facing the sunset. "Not when there are so many happy things in our lives. And hers too."

"Yeah, she and Richie make a good couple." Stitch said as he moved closer to Lilo.

"We don't make such a bad couple ourselves." Lilo replied.

Stitch snickered. "Yeah, you're right."

"Speaking of couples, did you hear about Sparky and Clip?" Lilo said as they watched the waves.

"Yeah, Jumba says she's supposed to give birth in a couple months." Stitch replied. "I know Angel's driving 625 crazy with talk about babies."

"Doesn't she know she can't have children for a few more years since she's a 600 experiment?" Lilo said as she leaned against him.

"Yeah, and she's been on Jumba's case about that."

Lilo laughed lightly. "Yeah, that makes me think about what we were talking about the other day. I wonder what our kids will be like?"

"Who knows?" Stitch replied as the pair watched the sunset. "I guess will have to have them first."

"Well don't you get in a hurry; childbirth is one thing I'm not looking forward to."

"But you're looking forward to raising them I'll bet." Stitch replied.

"Maybe. I mean, they may turn our just like us, and then we will be in for it."

Both of them laughed at the thought of it. Lilo then turned towards Stitch. "But I know it will all be worth it. Because I'll be with you."

The pair said nothing else as they met in a kiss, a kiss to the future, to children yet to come, to love everlasting. The first kiss of the rest of their lives.

End

Thru New Eyes

A/N: Yes, I know it's been two years. Things got nuts a little after I last wrote, and writing sorta fell by the wayside. There is supposed to be one more story after this one, but the plot for it is so far out there, I don't think I'll bother. (Still trying to figure out what caused me to put Sirrion in here; which was originally a childhood creation of mine, and probably better off in his own story). Oh well, you live and you learn. Anyway, I'll try and see if I can't get to work on Soul of the Night sometime in the near future, but college sucks a lot of my time, and I usually need inspiration to write, the kind I need for SotN usually comes around early October.


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